Public Awareness and Perceptions of Invasive Alien Species in Small Towns

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a growing threat globally and cause a variety of ecological, economic, and social impacts. People can introduce IAS and facilitate their spread, and can also implement, support, or oppose their management. Understanding local knowledge, awareness, and perceptions are therefore crucial if management and policy are to be effective. We administered questionnaires to members of the public in eight small towns along the Berg River Catchment in the biodiverse fynbos biome of South Africa. We aimed to assess: (1) awareness of IAS by the general public, (2) local perceptions of the impacts associated with IAS, (3) whether awareness of IAS is correlated with demographic covariates and IAS density, and (4) people’s willingness to detect, report, and support IAS management. Overall, 262 respondents participated in the survey. Most respondents (65%) did not know what IAS are, and 10% were unsure. Many respondents also perceived IAS as beneficial. Using a logistic regression, we found that IAS density, educational level, and gender influenced people’s knowledge and perceptions about IAS in the region. There were a small number (4%) of respondents currently detecting and reporting IAS, but many respondents were interested to learn more. We concluded that people living in small towns in the Western Cape of South Africa remain largely unaware of IAS and their impacts. It is crucial to increase awareness-raising initiatives, and build support and engagement in management of IAS in small towns.

A Challenge to the Liberal Peace? European Union Peacebuilding faces China in Nepal

How does China’s rising presence in Nepal affect the European Union’s own peacebuilding efforts in the country? As a global peace and security actor, the EU has followed the liberal peacebuilding model that promotes peace by strengthening democratic institutions. China’s rise as a “pragmatic” peacebuilder is often called non-conducive to this approach, but how this dynamic plays out has rarely been studied with detailed case evidence. We narrow this gap using the case of Nepal. Drawing on interviews conducted between 2015 and 2020, we find that China’s rise has decreased the EU’s leverage in promoting peace in the areas of civil society, human rights, and constitution-building. But some setbacks in the peace process were unrelated to China. Instead, they were also linked to the EU’s own reform neglects and policy differences, and to local perceptions about peacebuilders, showing how external and internal challenges jointly affect the EU’s role as peacebuilder.

Do local perceptions of climate variability and changes correspond to observed climate changes? – a comparative study from Nepal as one of the most climate vulnerable countries

This study explored people’s perceptions of climate change by conducting interviews and focus group discussions with local residents of three ecological regions of Nepal, i.e., Mountain, Mid-hills and Low-land. Climatic measurements from meteorological stations of the regions were acquired for the period of 1988 to 2018. We compared the people’s perception with trends and variabilities of observed temperature and rainfall patterns. The results showed that over the last three decades, temperature and precipitation trends, and variability between regions varied largely corroborating with the local experiences. The temperature increased in Mountain, Mid-hills, and Low-land by 0.061° C yr−1, 0.063° C yr−1 and 0.017° C yr−1 respectively. On the contrary, rainfall reduced by −9.7 mm yr−1, −3.6 mm yr−1, and −0.04 mm yr−1 for the regions respectively. While the amount of rainfall decrease observed in the Mountain was highest, its variability was found relatively low; and vice-versa in Low-land. Approximately 88% interviewees perceived temperature rise, and 74% noticed rainfall decline. Local residents linked these changes with their livelihood activities and exemplified with, for example, crop’s quality and quantity; and birds’ migration. The results indicate that local understandings complement the scarce observational data and provides a reliable and additional foundations to determine changes in climatic variables. Moreover, the result infers that the small changes in climate variables have noticeable implications on human behavior change. Therefore, besides active participation of local communities, integrating local understanding is crucial in developing climate change related policies and strategies at local and national levels.

Love Thy Neighbour: Social Benefits and Port-City Relationships

As awareness of the negative externalities created by ports increases, and the perceived local benefits decrease, ports must find new ways to improve the local noneconomic benefits they provide if they are to obtain local support. This global survey collected data from 51 ports in 26 countries. The results highlight a recognition by port authorities that ports face increasing pressure from local residents to reduce their negative impacts and that they should seek to improve the public perception towards the port by increasing local benefits. At present, port information and social media (81%), port events (67%) and education (63%) are the most adopted options. There is a lack of evidence that these measures are effective in improving local perceptions. Maritime museums and public access show a positive association with increasing local awareness of the benefits a port provides, despite their lower levels of adoption (45%). Port centres are the least adopted option at present (29%) and can be expected to increase significantly, with a 43% increase anticipated between numbers of current and expected future centres. Education (14%), public access (13%) and maritime museums (4.5%) also show increases in levels of interest. Maritime museums and public access should be pursued as proven, effective options for improving local perceptions of ports, whilst port centres may provide a new focal point for port-related social and cultural activities.

Options to Support Sustainable Trajectories in a Rural Landscape: Drivers, Rural Processes, and Local Perceptions in a Colombian Coffee-Growing Region

Trajectories of many rural landscapes in Latin America remain unsustainable. Options to support sustainable rural trajectories should be comprehensive and rooted in the interests of rural actors. We selected a municipality in a coffee-growing region in Colombia with an increasing urban–rural nexus to describe interactions between rural processes and their drivers while identifying and contextualising the perceptions of local actors on major constraints and opportunities for more inclusive and sustainable rural trajectories. We described these interactions by combining secondary data on main drivers, agricultural census data, and interviews with different local actors. Changes in population structure, volatility in coffee prices, in-/out-migration, deagrarianisation, and rurbanisation, among others, are reconfiguring the rural trajectories of the study area. Despite not being a major coffee region, farmers in the study area have developed different strategies, including intensification, diversification, replacement or abandonment of coffee production, and commercialisation. The perceptions of local actors and the multiplicity of agricultural households, food/land use systems, rural processes, and drivers described in this study suggest that more sustainable rural transitions need to be supported by inclusive, integrated, and transformative landscape planning approaches that align with local priorities. However, this transformation needs to be accompanied by changes at a systemic level that address the fundamental bottlenecks to real sustainability.

Border and Memory in the village of Koshovice

This article focuses on the village of Koshovice, Albania, where its residents are part of the officially recognized Greek minority. The local perceptions of the community are discussed as linked to the Albanian-Greek border and its presence in the collective memory. After the borderline creation in 1913, local residents were divided between the two neighboring countries. The ethnographic data collected underline the experiences and the everyday practices of the villagers of Koshovice, especially during the period of the Albanian socialist state between 1945 and 1991, when the border became almost impenetrable. The article then discusses the changes after the fall of socialism and the opening of the border in the early 1990s, especially showing how the local borderland communities are still connected nowadays to each other despite the inter-state division.

Local Perceptions of Climate Change and Adaptation Responses from Two Mountain Regions in Tanzania

Mountain environments and communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Changes in temperature are greater than at lower elevations, which affect the height of the cloud base and local rainfall patterns. While our knowledge of the biophysical nature of climate change in East Africa has increased in the past few years, research on Indigenous farmers’ perceptions and adaptation responses is still lacking, particularly in mountains regions. Semi-structured interviews were administered to 300 farmers on Mount Kilimanjaro (n = 150) and the Udzungwa Mountains (n = 150) in Tanzania across gender and wealth groups. Respondents in both mountains reported not only changes in rainfall and temperature, corresponding with meteorological data, but also a greater incidence of fog, wind, frost, and hailstorms—with impacts on decreased crop yields and increased outbreaks of pests. The most common adaptation strategies used were improved crop varieties and inputs. Wealthier households diversified into horticulture or animal rearing, while poorer households of Hehe ethnicity diversified to labour and selling firewood. Despite being climate change literate and having access to radios, most respondents used Indigenous knowledge to decide on planting dates. Our findings highlight how context and culture are important when designing adaptation options and argue for greater involvement of local stakeholders in adaptation planning using a science-with-society approach. Place-based results offer generalisable insights that have application for other mountains in the Global South.

Improved Livelihoods on Less Land

The chapter traces the changing economic history of two villages from their status as frontier settlements with abundant land in the 1950s, to poor farming areas ill-endowed with infrastructure, to more prosperous settlements benefitting from commercialized tomato cultivation and good road connections to the regional capital. The wealth is visible in the larger number of higher-quality houses which are being constructed. There are also changes in local perceptions of what wealth and poverty mean. Finally the chapter presents different sorts of strategies which capture the ways in which residents have responded to the opportunities and circumstances around them.