scholarly journals Towards a global dataset of seagrass occurrences: current progress, knowledge gaps and challenges

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Weatherdon ◽  
Corinne S Martin ◽  
Chris Mcowen ◽  
Hannah Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Marine Conservation ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Monitoring Centre ◽  
Global Science ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
The Status

For a number of years, the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has collaborated with Dr. Frederic Short (SeagrassNet, University of New Hampshire) and other seagrass experts worldwide to compile a global georeferenced dataset of seagrass occurrences. More than 184,000 point and polygon records have been collated to date. The GIS dataset and associated metadata can be downloaded from UNEP-WCMC’s Ocean Data Viewer, thereby providing ready-for-use information on the location of this critical habitat to policy-makers, conservationists, and scientists. This knowledge is necessary to inform better decisions regarding marine conservation (e.g., marine spatial planning) and to ensure the sustainable use of our ocean’s resources (e.g., ecosystem service valuation). This and other similar datasets on the distribution of key marine habitats—e.g., saltmarshes, mangroves, and corals (also curated and distributed by UNEP-WCMC)—have been used in numerous global and regional studies that examine the status of sensitive marine biodiversity and related impacts. Occurrence datasets such as these are also used to inform predictive models aimed at filling spatial gaps in knowledge. Moreover, such a global dataset can support analyses that explore the contribution of seagrass and other ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems (e.g. saltmarsh, mangrove) to carbon sequestration, thereby aiding climate change mitigation. As part of an interactive session, we will: 1. Present current progress towards collating a global dataset of seagrass occurrences, highlighting the achievements of such collaborative endeavours and the relevance of this dataset to global science, conservation, and policy initiatives; and 2. Facilitate a discussion with Mediterranean seagrass experts to develop recommendations for addressing the knowledge gaps and challenges (e.g. licensing issues) that have been identified. In particular, this session will focus on improving our collective knowledge of the spatial distribution of seagrass ecosystems in data-poor regions of the Mediterranean by drawing from local and regional expertise. Given the importance of these ecosystems to sustaining marine biodiversity, regulating carbon, and supporting global fisheries, such contributions towards developing a comprehensive and accurate dataset can help to ensure that scientists, conservationists, policy-makers and other decision-makers have the appropriate information to make better-informed analyses and decisions.

scholarly journals Towards a global dataset of seagrass occurrences: current progress, knowledge gaps and challenges

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Weatherdon ◽  
Corinne S Martin ◽  
Chris Mcowen ◽  
Hannah Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Marine Conservation ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Monitoring Centre ◽  
Global Science ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
The Status

For a number of years, the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has collaborated with Dr. Frederic Short (SeagrassNet, University of New Hampshire) and other seagrass experts worldwide to compile a global georeferenced dataset of seagrass occurrences. More than 184,000 point and polygon records have been collated to date. The GIS dataset and associated metadata can be downloaded from UNEP-WCMC’s Ocean Data Viewer, thereby providing ready-for-use information on the location of this critical habitat to policy-makers, conservationists, and scientists. This knowledge is necessary to inform better decisions regarding marine conservation (e.g., marine spatial planning) and to ensure the sustainable use of our ocean’s resources (e.g., ecosystem service valuation). This and other similar datasets on the distribution of key marine habitats—e.g., saltmarshes, mangroves, and corals (also curated and distributed by UNEP-WCMC)—have been used in numerous global and regional studies that examine the status of sensitive marine biodiversity and related impacts. Occurrence datasets such as these are also used to inform predictive models aimed at filling spatial gaps in knowledge. Moreover, such a global dataset can support analyses that explore the contribution of seagrass and other ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems (e.g. saltmarsh, mangrove) to carbon sequestration, thereby aiding climate change mitigation. As part of an interactive session, we will: 1. Present current progress towards collating a global dataset of seagrass occurrences, highlighting the achievements of such collaborative endeavours and the relevance of this dataset to global science, conservation, and policy initiatives; and 2. Facilitate a discussion with Mediterranean seagrass experts to develop recommendations for addressing the knowledge gaps and challenges (e.g. licensing issues) that have been identified. In particular, this session will focus on improving our collective knowledge of the spatial distribution of seagrass ecosystems in data-poor regions of the Mediterranean by drawing from local and regional expertise. Given the importance of these ecosystems to sustaining marine biodiversity, regulating carbon, and supporting global fisheries, such contributions towards developing a comprehensive and accurate dataset can help to ensure that scientists, conservationists, policy-makers and other decision-makers have the appropriate information to make better-informed analyses and decisions.

scholarly journals Fisheries, food security, climate change, and biodiversity: characteristics of the sector and perspectives on emerging issues

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1343-1353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake C. Rice ◽  
Serge M. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Protein Requirements ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Regional Basis ◽  
Growing Conditions

Abstract Rice, J. C., and Garcia, S. M. 2011. Fisheries, food security, climate change, and biodiversity: characteristics of the sector and perspectives on emerging issues. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1343–1353. This paper reviews global projections to 2050 for human population growth and food production, both assuming constant climate and taking account of climate-related changes in growing conditions. It also reviews statistics on nutritional protein requirements, as well as how those requirements are met by fish on a regional basis. To meet projected food requirements, the production of fish has to increase by ∼50% from current levels. The paper also summarizes the main pressures on marine biodiversity that are expected to result from the impacts of changing climate on marine ecosystems, as well as the management measures and policy actions promoted to address those pressures. It highlights that most of the actions being proposed to address pressures on marine biodiversity are totally incompatible with the actions considered necessary to meet future food security needs, particularly in less developed parts of the world. The paper does not propose a solution to these conflicting pulls on policies for conservation and sustainable use. Rather, it emphasizes that there is a need for the two communities of experts and policy-makers to collaborate in finding a single compatible suite of policies and management measures, to allow coherent action on these crucial and difficult problems.

Marine Protected Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Some Practical Perspectives for Moving Ahead

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina M. Gjerde ◽  
Anna Rulska-Domino
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Marine Conservation ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Political Commitments ◽  
High Seas

Abstract Despite strong legal duties and political commitments for marine conservation and ecosystem-based management, biodiversity in the high seas and the Area (jointly referred to as areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ)) is under increasing threat. One important tool for enhancing conservation and multi-sectoral cooperation is the establishment and maintenance of representative networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). This commentary reviews potential avenues for accelerating progress towards representative MPA networks as part of a larger-scale effort towards improving the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. It builds on the report by Petra Drankier, Marine Protected Areas in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, Report on Research Question 2 of the Study on ‘Biological Diversity and Governance of the High Seas’ (2011), which describes the applicable global and regional conventions by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of proposed avenues for progress, including a possible multilateral agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). The commentary concludes with some observations for a pragmatic path ahead.

Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, Mahmood Hasan Khan and M. Ghaffu Otaudhry (edt.). LaJld Reforms in Pakistan, A Historical Perspective. Islamabad: Pakistan Institute of Development Economics 1987. viii+216 pp.Price: Rs 220 (USS 35) for hardcover; Rs 140.00 (USS 20) for soft-cover.

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-218
Author(s):  
Luther Tweeten
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Rural Pakistan ◽  
The Status ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Ownership Of Land ◽  
High Degree

The authors describe how Pakistan has grappled with land reform, surely one of the most intractable and divisive issues facing agriculture anywhere. The land-tenure system at independence in 1947 included a high degree of land ownership concentration, absentee landlordism, insecurity of tenant tenure, and excessive rent. Land reform since 1947 focused on imposition of ceilings on landholding, distribution of land to landless tenants and small owners, and readjustments of contracts to improve the position of the tenant. These reformist measures have removed some but by no means all of the undesirable characteristics of the system. The authors list as well as present a critique of the reports of five official committees and commissions on land reform. The reports highlight the conflicts and ideologies of the reformers. The predominant ideal of the land reformers is a system of peasant proprietorship although some reformers favoured other systems such as communal farming and state ownership of land, and still others favoured cash rents over share rents. More pragmatic reformers recognized that tenancy is likely to be with Pakistan for the foreseeable future and that the batai (sharecropping) arrangement is the most workable system. According to the editors, the batai system can work to the advantage of landlord and tenant if the ceilings on landholding can be sufficiently lowered (and enforced), the security of the tenant is ensured, and the tenant has recourse to the courts for adjudication of disputes with landlords. Many policy-makers in Pakistan have come to accept that position but intervention by the State to realize the ideal has been slow. The editors conclude that" ... the end result of these land reforms is that they have not succeeded in significantly changing the status quo in rural Pakistan" (p. 29).

Language Use and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy-Makers and Educators in Northeast Vietnamese Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Ha Ngan Ngo ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Wedding Songs

Vietnam represents a country with 54 ethnic groups; however, the majority (88%) of the population are of Vietnamese heritage. Some of the other ethnic groups such as Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, and Nung have a population of around 1 million each, while the Brau, Roman, and Odu consist only of a hundred people each. Living in northern Vietnam, close to the Chinese border (see Figure 1), the Tay people speak a language of the    Central    Tai language group called Though, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di. Tay remains one of 10 ethnic languages used by 1 million speakers (Buoi, 2003). The Tày ethnic group has a rich culture of wedding songs, poems, dance, and music and celebrate various festivals. Wet rice cultivation, canal digging and grain threshing on wooden racks are part of the Tày traditions. Their villages situated near the foothills often bear the names of nearby mountains, rivers, or fields. This study discusses the status and role of the Tày language in Northeast Vietnam. It discusses factors, which have affected the habitual use of the Tay language, the connection between language shift and development and provides a model for the sustainability and promotion of minority languages. It remains fundamentally imperative to strengthen and to foster positive attitudes of the community towards the Tày language. Tày’s young people must be enlightened to the reality their Tày non-usage could render their mother tongue defunct, which means their history stands to be lost.

The status, conservation and sustainable use of Estonian wetlands

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Kimmel ◽  
Ain Kull ◽  
Jüri-Ott Salm ◽  
Ülo Mander
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Use ◽  
The Status

scholarly journals Biogeography of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests. Part II: Mapping of Orographic Cloud Immersion

2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 2183-2197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udaysankar S. Nair ◽  
Salvi Asefi ◽  
Ronald M. Welch ◽  
D. K. Ray ◽  
Robert O. Lawton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Cloud Forest ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Cloud Forests ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Modis Data ◽  
Monitoring Centre ◽  
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests

Abstract This study details two unique methods to quantify cloud-immersion statistics for tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs). The first technique uses a new algorithm for determining cloud-base height using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud products, and the second method uses numerical atmospheric simulation along with geostationary satellite data. Cloud-immersion statistics are determined using MODIS data for March 2003 over the study region consisting of Costa Rica, southern Nicaragua, and northern Panama. Comparison with known locations of cloud forests in northern Costa Rica shows that the MODIS-derived cloud-immersion maps successfully identify known cloud-forest locations in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) database. Large connected regions of cloud immersion are observed in regions in which the trade wind flow is directly impinging upon the mountain slopes; in areas in which the flow is parallel to the slopes, a fractured spatial distribution of TMCFs is observed. Comparisons of the MODIS-derived cloud-immersion map with the model output show that the MODIS product successfully captures the important cloud-immersion patterns in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. The areal extent of cloud immersion is at a maximum during morning hours and at a minimum during the afternoon, before increasing again in the evening. Cloud-immersion frequencies generally increase with increasing elevation and tend to be higher on the Caribbean Sea side of the mountains. This study shows that the MODIS data may be used successfully to map the biogeography of cloud forests and to quantify cloud immersion over cloud-forest locations.

Getting Tsunami Recovery and Early Warning Right

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
Ben Wisner ◽  
Peter Walker
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Indian Ocean Tsunami ◽  
Tropical Storms ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Tsunami Warning System ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Status

The massive human and economic impact of the Asian tsunami in later 2004 is mirrored in the aftershocks felt among humanitarian organisations, development agencies, and policy makers. This paper raises a number of these troubling, fundamental issues. Firstly, the call for an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system raises fundamental issues about what warning systems can, and cannot, do. Secondly, one is also forced to consider why in the first place so many people live on exposed coasts today, vulnerable not only to tsunamis but tropical storms and rainy season flooding among other hazards. Thirdly, one is challenged to question the very meaning of “recovery”. Such massive damage has been done and so many people and their livelihoods have been dislocated, is it actually possible to imagine a return to the status quo ante? Fourthly, reconstruction of the magnitude now underway in the affected areas raises many difficult questions about accountability, transparency, and the unevenness with which the international community responds to crises. The paper finishes with some recommendations.

Convention on Biological Diversity: Towards a sustainable future

Social Change ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 173-191
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Biological Resources ◽  
Transfer Benefit ◽  
Global Agreement

In an era of a rapidly shrinking biological resources, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a historic landmark, being the first global agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The CBD is one of the few international agreements in the area of natural resource conservation in which sustainability and equitable benefit-sharing are central concerns. The CBD links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably and sets forth principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, notably those destined for commercial use. Importantly, the CBD also gives traditional knowledge its due place in the sustainable use of genetic resources. The CBD also covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology, addressing technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing and biosafety, in an equitable framework. In the coming years, the CBD is likely to have major repercussions on the way biodiversity is conserved and benefits thereof, shared between the developing and developed worlds. The following commentary on the CBD has drawn heavily from a document produced by Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the United Nations Environment Programme. Articles 1 to 21 of the CBD have also been reproduced here in order to disseminate knowledge regarding the principles of the CBD-Editor.

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