Patterns of Resource Use for Tourism Development in Mountainous Communities in Ukraine

The purpose of this article is to identify the problems associated with the tourism resource utilization in mountainous communities of Ukraine. Developing tourism at local level is a priority in the region of Ivano-Frankivsk, especially in the context of decentralization process in Ukraine. A survey was conducted involving the managers of hospitality establishments during the "active" tourist season from July to August 2019. Main parameters selected for this inquiry included the water consumption (in the form of drainage), solid waste disposal, and the quantum of electricity consumed. Data of water consumption (drainage), consumed electricity, and solid waste disposal in the surveyed hospitality establishments reflects proportional growth of the tourism manifesting accommodated tourists, capacity, and category of the hospitality establishments. On priority, identified problems of resource utilization encompass waste management, water supply, sewerage, energy supply and incom ing tourist flows. Quantitative forecasting of environmental load to be exerted by tourism development is necessary when planning resource utilization and livelihood systems of mountainous communities.

Ecological Status and Peoples’ Perception of Mistletoes in Panchase Protected Forest, Central Nepal Himalayas

Realizing the importance of Panchase Protected Forest, an important corridor of the Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape (CHAL) area, the ecological status and peoples’ perception of mistletoe was studied to supplement the information on mistletoes of Nepal Himalayas. Mistletoes were studied along the forest trails and data were collected within 10 m radius plots 20 m inside the trails to record the incidence of mistletoe occurrence and severity of infection during three field visits in 1917 and 1918. Fifty people were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and Biodiversity Conservation Confidence Index was calculated to understand peoples' perceptions about mistletoes. A total of seven mistletoe species, six belonging to four genera in the family Loranthaceae, and a single genus in the family Viscaceae were documented from 27 host species belonging to 24 genera in 18 unrelated angiosperm host families. Loranthaceae mistletoes were more generalists having a wide host range while Viscaceae mistletoe showed a high degree of host specificity. The irregular and patchy distribution of mistletoe is governed by host availability, forest structure, and site mesoclimate. Knowledge regarding the importance and uses of mistletoes and its values in natural plant communities is limited to older generation people. Age groups, profession, and the mechanism of indigenous knowledge inheritance in the rural mountainous communities of the Panchase area are very poor and are eroding rapidly which is against promoting the indigenous knowledge system especially in the younger generation. More conservation initiatives are needed through the stakeholder involvement to protect the rich biodiversity of the area.

Real Time Disaster Information Transfer and Emergency Operation Systems Established for Remote Mountainous Communities in Southwestern Taiwan

<p><strong>Real Time Disaster Information Transfer and Emergency Operation Systems Established for Remote Mountainous Communities in Southwestern Taiwan</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Kuang-Jung TSAI <sup>1</sup>, Tsai-Tsung Tsai <sup>2</sup>,Yie-Ruey CHEN<sup> 3</sup>, Ming-Hsi Lee<sup>4</sup>,Jia-Xuan Li<sup> 5</sup></p><p>1Department of Land Management and Development, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan , Taiwan</p><p>2 Department of DPRC, National Chengkuang University ,Tainan,Taiwan</p><p>3 Department of Land Management and Development, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan , Taiwan</p><p>4 Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung ,Taiwan Corresponding</p><p>5 Department of Land Management and Development, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan , Taiwan</p><p> </p><p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p>According to the report (1990) proposed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that Extreme Climate Change has a detrimental effect on the environmental ecology, cultural system, human society and national economic development all over the world since 1950. Taiwan is located at Pacific-rim area and belongs to the sub-tropic to tropic weather characteristics. Recently, extreme heavy rainfall resulted from climate change to induce serious sediment related disasters, such as large-scale landslide and debris flow, are critical in Taiwan. There are almost 24% of total remoted mountainous communities were located within Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and  Pingtung counties/cities with the amount of 50 remote communities where is almost 24% of high potential risk area occupied by remote mountainous communities in Taiwan. Most of these communities were frequently attacked by typhoons likes Morakot (2009), which brought the accumulated rainfall more than 2450 mm within continuous 72 hours. This extreme rainfall has triggered off a crisis of compound disasters to destroy the environment systems, agricultural productions, human lifes, properties and public facilities. Within there mountainous communities more than 608 landslides with total area of 968.2ha were induced by these disasters which were based on the field investigations. In order to decrease the risk of sediment related disasters attack these remoted mountainous areas, the adaption strategy of environmental conservation, new technology of filed investigations, hazard mitigation system, environmental vulnerability analysis and disaster risk assessment should be executed as soon as possible. According to the historical record (2007-2018) from soil & water conservation Bureau indicated that most of the remote mountainous communities located at southwestern Taiwan attacked by these compound disasters are significant. Meanwhile, study on the mechanism and behavior of compounded disasters induced by extremely heavy rainfall become an important issue which was seriously concerned by Taiwan government. An establishment of real time disaster information transfer and emergency operation systems would be positively concerned and recognized as an important issue by this research. Hopefully, all results can be expected to promote and enhance the disaster prevention capability for the remoted mountainous communities in southern Taiwan.</p><p>Keywords：climate change, extreme rainfall, sediment related disasters, adaption strategy</p>

The Potential Assessment of Environmental Disasters for Remoted Mountainous Communities nearby the Riverbank in Southern Taiwan under Climate Change

<p>There are almost 24% of total remoted mountainous communities located in Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties/cities of southern Taiwan. During recent years, the extreme rainfall events brought huge amounts of rainfall and triggered severe environmental disasters such as landslides, debris flows, flooding and sediment disasters in southern Taiwan. The maximum rainfall of typhoon Morakot in August 2009 was approaching 3,000 mm during 4 days in mountainous area of Chiayi city. There are 359 landslides occurred nearby the remoted mountainous communities in the study area during the typhoon event. The landslide area was over 900 ha.</p><p>The potential assessments of environmental disasters for 38 remoted mountainous communities nearby the riverbank were analyzed. The landslide areas nearby the 38 communities in last 10 years (2007-2016) were identified. The numerical models (HEC-RAS, CCHE-2D and FLO-2D) were used to simulate the flooding level, scouring and deposition of river bed and the influence area of debris-flow occurrence under different return periods (25, 50 and 100 years). The results show that there are 5, 4 and 14 high potential communities of landslide, flooding and debris flow disasters, respectively. The results proposed by this study can provide the disaster risk management of administrative decisions to lessen the impacts of environmental disasters for remoted mountainous communities nearby the riverbank in southern Taiwan under climate change.</p>

Livelihood Vulnerability Associated with Forest Fire in Pauri-Garhwal, Western Himalaya

Background: The livelihood of mountainous communities of Himalayan region closely knotted with forest related activities. However, forest degradation especially forest fire significantly affects the mountainous livelihood and hence, there is an urgent need to describe, evaluate and understand specificity of mountainous areas to forest fire. Methods: In this view, a study on livelihood vulnerability with forest fire of High Altitude Zone (HAZ) and Low Altitude Zone (LAZ) was assessed with Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI). It uses 35 indicators, reduced to six components to create an overall index. Each component is composed of set of indicators and they are function of observable variables. The framework uses primary data and employs maximum-minimum normalization to restrict the value range of indicators between 0 to 1. Results: The value near to 0 shows lower vulnerability. The overall vulnerability of HAZ region is higher, that might be attributed to higher dependency on forest; live in proximity of forest; unstable socioeconomic condition; less infrastructural development and higher exposure to climatic extreme events. Conclusion: Therefore, the adaptive capacity of HAZ should be strengthened in a cross cutting manner for reducing livelihood vulnerability to forest fire. The sectors specific developmental policies/programmes should also be rationalized through bottom up adaptation planning with special reference to forest fire vulnerability.