Role of Forest Management in Environmental Studies with Reference to the Maintaining of Conservation Values

A forest is a type of ecosystem in which there is high density of trees occupying a relatively large area of land. An ecosystem is an ecological unit consisting of a biotic community together with it’s a biotic environment. In the case of forest, tress dominant the biotic landscape, although there are also other plants and animals. There are many types of forest, such as tropical, evergreen, deciduous and dry forest based on the climatic condition and types of trees present. Forests provide innumerable values to people, provide aspects that address both physical needs as well as the internal nature of people. Forest help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates. Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tree roots bind the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms. Herbs, shrubs and trees in the forests hold the topmost layer firmly by their roots. This does not allow natural forces like wind and water to carry away the topmost fertile layer of the soil easily. Hence, Forests prevent soil erosion. With forest conservation, animal species, insects and all the biodiversity of natural areas is protected. It is noteworthy that these beings and the local vegetation exert influence on conservation beyond deforestation and the regional climate, even interfering with the health of the local community. Keywords: Forest, Natural Resources, Implementation, Ecological Balance, Significance, Deforestation, Climatic Condition

Community-Based Tourism and Local People's Perceptions Towards Conservation

Uganda is among the most bio-diverse countries and a competitive wildlife-based tourism destination in the world. Community-based tourism approach has been adopted in the country's conservation areas as a strategy to ensure that local communities benefit and support wildlife conservation. This chapter analyses local communities' perceptions of conservation and the benefits they get from tourism in Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area. The study reveals that local communities were concerned about loss of protected resources and support their conservation irrespective of the benefits they get from tourism in the conservation area. There is need to design conservation programmes that focus on local community-conservation-benefits nexus which take into consideration the perceived conservation values, strategies for benefit sharing and incorporation of indigenous knowledge systems.

The Discontinuous Elevational Distribution of an Ungulate at the Regional Scale: Implications for Speciation and Conservation

The elevational range where montane species live is a key factor of spatial niche partitioning, because the limits of such ranges are influenced by interspecies interaction, abiotic stress, and dispersal barriers. At the regional scale, unimodal distributions of single species along the elevation gradient have often been reported, while discontinuous patterns, such as bimodal distributions, and potential ecological implications have been rarely discussed. Here, we used extensive camera trap records to reveal the elevation distribution of Himalaya blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) and its co-existence with other ground animal communities along a slope of Baima Snow Mountain, southwest China. The results show that Himalaya blue sheep exhibited a distinctive bimodal distribution along the elevation gradient contrasting the unimodal distributions found for the other ungulates in Baima snow mountain. A first distributional peak was represented by a population habituating in scree habitat around 4100 m, and a second peak was found in the dry-hot valley around 2600 m. The two distinct populations co-existed with disparate animal communities and these assemblages were similar both in the dry and rainy seasons. The extremely low abundance of blue sheep observed in the densely forested belt at mid-elevation indicates that vegetation rather than temperature is responsible for such segregation. The low-elevation population relied highly on Opuntia ficus-indica, an invasive cactus species that colonized the region six hundred years ago, as food resource. Being the only animal that developed a strategy to feed on this spiky plant, we suggest invasive species may have formed new foraging niche to support blue sheep population in lower elevation hot-dry river valleys, resulting in the geographic separation from the original population and a potential morphological differentiation, as recorded. These findings emphasize the important conservation values of role of ecological functions to identify different taxa, and conservation values of apparent similar species of different ecological functions.

Soundscapes and protected area conservation: Are noises in nature making people complacent?

This study explores how existing connections to natural places may affect PA visitors’ experiences and perceptions within the PA. Specifically, outside-the-PA soundscape perceptions are examined to better understand how their experiences outside the PA may affect perceptions of PA soundscapes and visitors’ ability to effectively contribute to conservation monitoring. Survey research (n=389) of recent urban visitors to the Chilean Coyhaique National Reserve (CNR) in Patagonia unpacked perceptions of the acoustic environments within the places where participants felt most connected to nature, including landscape features, favorite and prevalent sounds, and acceptability of particular anthrophonic sounds. Favorite and prevalent sounds were open-coded, and anthrophonic sounds were rated for prevalence and acceptability. The mountain landscape features and sounds (‘wind’, ‘running water’,‘ birds’) participants described as prominent within the places where they felt most connected to nature aligned well with CNR characteristics. Participants who ‘sometimes’‘/often’ heard certain anthropogenic sounds (vehicles, aircraft, machines, city sounds), within the places where they felt most connected to nature, rated those sounds as more acceptable than participants who reported ‘never’ hearing them, raising concerns about complacency toward anthrophony in natural settings. Continued research efforts are warranted to better understand visitors’ frames of reference, their influence on the reliability of social norm data for PA soundscape monitoring, and their influence on PA managers’ ability to protect conservation values.

Personal Values in Relation to Risk Intelligence: Evidence from a Multi-Mediation Model

In a risk society, personal values can be important resources, useful for managing uncertainty and guiding people in the perception of risk. The goal of this article is to explore the relationship between risk intelligence and personal values. The participants were 731 Italian adults aged between 18 and 65 years (M = 30.25; DS = 10.71). The survey was composed of the following measures: Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale and Portrait Values Questionnaire. Data analyses have found significant relationships between some types of personal values and risk intelligence: subjective risk intelligence is negatively related to conservation and positively related to openness to change and self-transcendence, but it was not related to self-enhancement. Furthermore, values of openness to change and self-transcendence mediate the relationship between age and subjective risk intelligence, while conservation values and self-enhancement values did not mediate the same relationship. Implication for practice and future research will be discussed.

A Different Perspective on Personality: An Evolutionary Theory of Universal Values

Traits and personal values are important components of personality. The Schwartz (1992) system provides a comprehensive means of measuring the latter, but neither the Big Five or its HEXACO update provides a comprehensive and systematic means of measuring the former. Despite this, there is a tendency in academia for personality research to focus on traits. Previous research shows that values, like traits, are heritable and can be read reliably by others. Also, unlike traits, differences in values have been shown to support popular perceptions regarding the personality differences of siblings and only-children. Building from foundations in physical science and drawing from research in evolutionary biology and complexity theory, we present a theory that suggests Schwartz’s system of values represents and evolved from universal schema. According to this, equivalents of all values are present in the universal system and internalised hierarchically as local systems become increasingly complex and adaptive. It states that equivalents of benevolence and the conservation values are present in all stable systems, that organisms increasingly internalise equivalents to the self-enhancing values, until, with the evolution of intelligence, equivalents to the pro-change values of hedonism, stimulation and self-direction are internalised. While the independent thought and action associated with self-direction, and an ability to recognise one’s place in a wider system (universalism) are not unique to humanity, they are uniquely developed in humanity, and only in humanity does reciprocal altruism (benevolence) operate rationally and universally. We conclude by providing testable hypotheses and examples of sympathetic cultural developments.

COASTAL GEOMORPHOSITES ASSESSMENT FOR ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN EAST LOMBOK, INDONESIA

The research set out to analyze coastal typology characteristics and ecotourism development through geomorphosite assessments and suggest fitting management strategies in East Lombok, Indonesia. In this research, the connection between ecotourism potentials and coastal typologies was investigated. The methods of this research were conducted using a combination of GIS-based analysis and field surveys. Geomorphosites were assessed from several facets or attributes: scientific and intrinsic, educational, economic, conservation, and added values. The analysis results showed that two coastal geomorphosites could be developed into ecotourism spots, as supported by East Lombok’s regional planning to promote ecotourism in its tourism branding. In addition, the sites are suggested to develop local products as a part of their attractiveness. Another finding is that the coastal typology has a strong connection to the scoring result, especially the scientific-intrinsic and conservation values.