Analysis of Environmental Governance Expense Prediction Reform With the Background of Artificial Intelligence

In this paper, Artificial Intelligence assisted rule-based confidence metric (AI-CRBM) framework has been introduced for analyzing environmental governance expense prediction reform. A metric method is to assess a level of collective environmental governance representing general, government, and corporate aspects. The equilibrium approach is used to calculate improvements in the source of environmental management based on cost, and it is tailored to test the public sector-corporation for environmental shared governance. The overall concept of cost prediction or estimation of environmental governance is achieved by the rule-based confidence method. The framework compares the expected cost to the environment of governance to determine the efficiency of the cost prediction process.

Basin-Scale Approach to Integration of Agro- and Hydroecological Monitoring for Sustainable Environmental Management: A Case Study of Belgorod Oblast, European Russia

The quantitative and qualitative depletion of water resources (both surface and groundwater) is closely related to the need to protect soils against degradation, rationalization of land use, and regulation of surface water runoff within the watershed area. Belgorod Oblast (27,100 km2), one of the administrative regions of European Russia, was chosen as the study area. It is characterized by a high activity of soil erosion (the share of eroded soils is about 48% of the total area of arable land). The development phase of the River Basin Environmental Management Projects (217 river basins from the fourth to seventh order) allowed for the proceeding of the development of an integrated monitoring system for river systems and river basin systems. The methods used to establish a geoecological network for regional monitoring include the selection and application of GIS techniques to quantify the main indicators of ecological state and predisposition of river basins to soil erosion (the share of cropland and forestland, the share of the south-oriented slopes, soil erodibility, Slope Length and Steepness (LS) factor, erosion index of precipitation, and the river network density) and the method of a hierarchical classification of cluster analysis for the grouping of river basins. An approach considering the typology of river basins is also used to expand the regional network of hydrological gauging stations to rationalize the national hydrological monitoring network. By establishing 16 additional gauging stations on rivers from the fourth to seventh order, this approach allows for an increase in the area of hydro-agroecological monitoring by 1.26 times (i.e., up to 77.5% of the total area of Belgorod Oblast). Some integrated indicators of agroecological (on the watershed surface) and hydroecological (in river water flow) monitoring are proposed to improve basin environmental management projects. Six-year monitoring showed the effectiveness of water quality control measures on an example of a decrease in the concentrations of five major pollutants in river waters.

Influences of Engaging in a Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Process on Stakeholder Perceptions of Key Performance Indicators for Trails

Trail use is growing globally. Managers confront the classic dilemma of protecting ecological integrity and providing enriching experiences. They concomitantly face the imperative for sustainability—contemporarily characterized by complexity, uncertainty, conflict, and change. Heightened levels of visitation are cause for immense concerns due to adverse impacts to the environment as well as visitor experiences. COVID-19 exacerbates these challenges as heightened levels of visitation are occurring, while managers simultaneously face decreases in conservation funding, and restrictions on protected area operations. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is an emerging in- novation to collaboratively address social-ecological challenges, such as issues as- sociated with trail use. This research is concerned with exploring the influences of engaging in a PM&E process on stakeholder perceptions of key performance indicators (KPIs) for trails. This study compares stakeholder perceptions of KPIs for trails before and after a PM&E workshop at the Niagara Glen Nature Reserve in Ontario, Canada. Results show that PM&E can facilitate consensus among stakeholders regarding the overall goals of management and associated KPIs for environmental management planning. Stakeholders were shown to experience a real change in their perceptions of KPIs. The PM&E process studied show that participants became more conscious of the wider social realities as well as their perceptions of trail management. The study has important implications for managers concerned with trails and sustainability, including building consensus among key stakeholders to reach management goals, enhancing localized decision making, and building capacity for management towards sustainability. Trails, as well as the wider community can ultimately benefit from participatory approaches to environmental management. Consensus-building through PM&E works to enhance decisions that account for a diversity of perspectives. Stakeholder participation in trail management increases the likelihood that local needs and priorities are met, while allowing stakeholders to build capacity and learn to effectively manage their environments. Furthermore, positive perceptions from being meaningfully involved in PM&E can ensure the support of constituents, which is imperative for the long-term success of management planning.

The ridge-to-reef approach on Cicia Island, Fiji

Many Pacific countries and territories embrace an officially recognized ‘ridge-to-reef’ approach to environmental management. This is the case of Fiji, where the Lau Seascape Strategy 2018–2030, led by Conservation International, aims for integrated natural resource management across 335 895 km2. This area includes Cicia Island, which deserves particular attention since, years before the design of the Lau Seascape Strategy, its population developed its own informal ridge-to-reef scheme, involving a combination of certified organic agriculture and locally managed marine closures. Based on 1 month of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper presents this scheme and highlights local perception and conceptualization of its positive effects on both the land and the sea. These reflect the iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) concept of vanua, which intrinsically connects the health of the land, the sea, and their (human and non-human) dwellers, while stressing the importance of addressing land-sea processes and management efforts beyond an ecological perspective, i.e. through an engagement with the iTaukei relational ontology.

Municipal environmental management and regional conservation in eastern Amazon: perceived performance by public agents in the Pará state, Brazil

Public agents play a key role in municipal environmental management (MEM) under decentralised regimes. This study aimed to evaluate the MEM through the combined perception of municipal agents and the municipal performance previously calculated by secondary data in Pará, Brazil. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was applied to environmental agents. The respondents (n = 75) from 53 municipalities were divided into poorly performing and well-performing municipalities. The perception of agents from poorly performing municipalities was more optimistic than shown by empirical data. Agents from well-performing municipalities prioritised “economic issues” as significant threats to management over the “institutional capacity” chosen by the other group, indicating a broader view of the reality. As the perception over land-use practices was vital to differentiate the agents from different groups, we concluded for the use of mixed monitoring methods and feedback information for agents for a better MEM, focusing on five variables (Rural environmental register – CAR, in Portuguese acronym; degraded area; deforested area; rural credit; and abandoned pasture) that differentiated the municipalities.