Ichnofossils of the Campano-Maastrichian Gombe formation from Gongola Basin, Upper Benue Trough, Nigeria: Their environmental significance

No Abstract.

Mapping Terra Incognita: An Expert Elicitation of Women's Roles in Wildlife Trafficking

The gender dimensions of wildlife trafficking remain understudied even though the problem is of great socio-environmental significance. Data about the roles of women in wildlife trafficking offer critically needed indicators that can contribute to building evidence and setting targets for, and monitoring progress of, sustainable and equitable futures. We set three objectives for this research filling a major gap in conservation knowledge: (1) explore expert perceptions of primary roles that women may play in wildlife trafficking, (2) explore expert perceptions of secondary roles that women may play in wildlife trafficking, and (3) explore variability in roles for women in wildlife trafficking. We used an online survey to conduct expert elicitation in February 2020 to achieve objectives. Experts (N = 215) identified key assumptions associated with six primary and 32 secondary roles for women in wildlife trafficking. Results highlight the impacts of wildlife trafficking manifest in varied contexts across society, including persons harmed at local levels such as family members in general, widows and orphans. The perceived roles of women in the wildlife trafficking networks may be factored into transformative solutions to help combat wildlife trafficking and data from expert elicitation can inform future hypotheses and inferences on this topic of broad socio-environmental significance.

State and prospects of forest protection from illegal logging in the Ural Federal District

Illegal logging and trade in primary timber is a significant threat to the integrity of the forest system of the Ural region. It causes enormous damage to economy and society. The purpose of the work is to describe the state of the problem of illegal logging, identify the main factors causing widespread illegal logging and illegal timber turnover in the district, and make separate recommendations to suppress illegal activities of unscrupulous forest users. The analysis, comparison, and synthesis of the data were conducted on the basis of official Departmental reporting provided by the Forestry Department of the Ural Federal District. The issue of illegal logging is systemic and sustainable. Recognition of not only economic, but also the social and environmental significance of the problem, coordination of interdepartmental interaction, improvement of the system of state forest control and supervision, combating corruption schemes, creation of the institution of public environmental inspectors and their active work with the support of regional and federal authorities and the response of the timber industry enterprises can turn the situation.