The Pinelands Development Credit Program

The “Pine Barrens” are a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve encompassing about 1.1 million acres in southern New Jersey. A state agency, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, in conjunction with county and local governments, works to implement land management and environmental protection goals via a comprehensive management plan. The pinelands development credit (PDC) program is one tool aimed specifically at land preservation outcomes. The PDC program is a regional “transfer of development rights” market allowing landowners to sell their rights to further develop their property and enter their land into permanent protected status. Since the program’s inception in 1982, over 55,000 acres of sensitive and rare ecosystem have been protected; the more than 1,200 transactions account for US$63 M of economic value. The PDC program is a clear illustration of the role that financial instruments and market mechanisms can play in achieving environmental protection outcomes. This case study offers an overview of the pinelands area, PDC program, and the transfer of development rights concept before examining the PDC program and its outcomes in greater detail. While the program has been hailed as a success, it will face challenges in the coming years, including a relatively inefficient process for converting PDCs into protected lands and the question of how the program can evolve once eligible lands become more scarce.

Developing Collegial Relationships to Address Hurdles in Ex Situ Turtle Conservation on an Indonesian University Campus

Building collegial international relationships is an important aspect of conservation and conservation education. The relationship relies on researchers understanding the local context of the conservation project and the sociocultural perspectives of all partners. Therefore, we situated our case study within sociocultural theory. Our case study focuses on the relationships and project work which developed between a biologist/science educator at the University of Bengkulu in Bengkulu, Sumatra, Indonesia, and a science education professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA, who shared longtime interests in herpetology. Employing the sociocultural perspective, we describe the background of each University group leader and how their previous experiences led to the development of a partnership focused on turtle conservation. In this case study, we seek to understand the social and cultural development of the researchers’ relationship as they teamed to address the ex situ conservation challenges of working with terrestrial and semiaquatic turtles. An examination of the researchers’ partnership provides a framework for the analysis of the work accomplished and remaining and offers insights to others interested in collaborative international conservation projects.

Groundwater Recharge for Drought and Endangered Species Protection

San Antonio Water Systems (SAWS) developed its H2Oaks aquifer storage and recovery project in response to pumping restrictions set on its primary source of water supply, the Edwards Aquifer. The H2Oaks project pumps water from the Edwards Aquifer during wet years and transports it to the H2Oaks project site, where it is injected into the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer for storage. Stored water is withdrawn to meet municipal demand when restrictions on Edwards Aquifer pumping are in place. Although created for the purpose of securing supplies for SAWS, the H2Oaks project became a centerpiece for regional water management. Storage is used during drought to mitigate impacts on pumping while ensuring minimum springflows needed to protect endangered species in the Edwards aquifer. Currently, the project stores over 176,000 acre-feet of water. This case study traces the development of the H2Oaks project from the passage of the Edwards Aquifer Act to the project’s current implementation. The H2Oaks project demonstrates the potential for groundwater recharge projects to store water as protection against drought conditions. It also demonstrates how storage by one entity can support water management needs across the broader community of water users.

The Pinelands Development Credit Program

The “Pine Barrens” are a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve encompassing about 1.1 million acres in southern New Jersey. A state agency, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, in conjunction with county and local governments, works to implement land management and environmental protection goals via a comprehensive management plan. The pinelands development credit (PDC) program is one tool aimed specifically at land preservation outcomes. The PDC program is a regional “transfer of development rights” market allowing landowners to sell their rights to further develop their property and enter their land into permanent protected status. Since the program’s inception in 1982, over 55,000 acres of sensitive and rare ecosystem have been protected; the more than 1,200 transactions account for US$63 M of economic value. The PDC program is a clear illustration of the role that financial instruments and market mechanisms can play in achieving environmental protection outcomes. This case study offers an overview of the pinelands area, PDC program, and the transfer of development rights concept before examining the PDC program and its outcomes in greater detail. While the program has been hailed as a success, it will face challenges in the coming years, including a relatively inefficient process for converting PDCs into protected lands and the question of how the program can evolve once eligible lands become more scarce.

Environmental and Economic Transformation of an Old Industrial Area

Since the national reform and opening policy of 1978, textile manufacturing has played a vital role in China’s advance. Confronted with the global importance of sustainable development, the industry faces a range of environmental and economic challenges. This inquiry addresses the issues created in an old industrial area and outlines ways in which textile production can be updated. Xiangyang City is taken as the case study, with the focus on three aspects: the use of renewable energy, energy recycling, and industrial tourism initiatives. This study summarizes the current situation and main environmental challenges in China’s textile production and can assist researchers by suggesting development directions and strategies for industrial upgrading and land uses.

Assessing Impacts to National Park Visitation From COVID-19

Yosemite National Park is a popular tourist destination with high visitation levels that have increased throughout the summer season over the past several decades. Like with other protected areas, high visitation levels pose challenges for coordinating resources, infrastructural capacity, and visitor experiences. Use limits, including rationing vehicle entry at gates by reservation, are one possible strategy to manage visitation levels. After an initial full closure, the park chose to operationalize a multiphased permit system for day-use and overnight entry over the course of the pandemic in accordance with local and national guidelines for operational safety. While park closures and other entry restrictions have been common in recent years due to wildland fires and other natural hazards, the pandemic-related entry limits represent a nearly yearlong experiment. The prolonged entry ration along with restrictions to group activities has limited visitation and potentially reduced transmission of the novel coronavirus. We review the per capita COVID-19 case count in surrounding counties given the flow of tourism from outside the region, assess the changes in access to the park with the novel reservation system, compare monthly visitation during the 2020 use limits with prior decadal averages, detail how high visitation levels and crowding persist, and review the Park’s plans for an ongoing day-use permit system. We conclude with the ongoing challenges managers face in light of continued high visitation. Readers will be able to debate the efficacy of use limits and what may be a sustainable level of visitation for the park.

Groundwater Recharge for Water Security

The Arizona Water Banking Authority (AWBA) was established in 1996 to make full use of Arizona’s Colorado River entitlement. It aims to address groundwater depletion in central Arizona and to protect Colorado River water users against future shortages due to interannual variability in water availability. Each year, the AWBA pays the costs to deliver any of the state’s unused entitlement to Colorado River water into central and southern Arizona and to store that water underground. The AWBA stores water on behalf of Central Arizona Project municipal subcontractors, other mainstream municipal Colorado River water rights holders, and tribal entities. Through its interstate banking agreements, the AWBA can also store water on behalf of the states of Nevada and California. Water stored by the AWBA is accounted for using Arizona’s statutorily created system of long-term storage credits (LTSCs), which allow future pumping of stored water within the same hydrologic basin. During shortage conditions in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River, the AWBA will distribute the LTSCs, enabling recipients to pump groundwater that otherwise would not be permitted. In this way, the AWBA serves as a unique insurance mechanism against shortages for users of Colorado River water in Arizona and the Lower Basin. To date, the AWBA’s focus has been on storage, yet in the coming years, its activities will shift to recovery, and it will need to confront additional challenges associated with matching supplies with demands and limitations on water available for recharge.

Disturbance Impacts of Logging on Ground Herbaceous Plant Species Richness, Diversity, and Composition of Lowland Rainforest of Papua New Guinea

The impact of logging activities on species richness, diversity, and composition of the ground herbaceous layer of the lowland forest of Papua New Guinea was analyzed. Data from the first multipurpose National Forest Inventory were collected in 52 plots from logged and unlogged low altitude forest on plains and fans (P) and forest on uplands (H) in Madang, West New Britain and Central Provinces. The abundance of 10,609 ground herbaceous plants classified in 174 species from 103 genera and 35 families. Based on importance values, Arecaceae was the dominating family in both logged and unlogged P forest type, while Urticaceae and Arecaceae were dominating respectively in logged and unlogged H forest type. At species level, Donax canniformis and Elatostema beccarii are dominating the P type, and Elatostema novoguineensis and Selaginella durvillei the H type. Analysis of species richness, diversity, and composition showed significant differences between the two types with the H type being richer and more diverse than P type. No differences emerged between logged and unlogged of both types, indicating that the current intensity of disturbance does not seem to have a significant impact on the ground herbaceous layer. Since herbaceous species are an important component of the tropical forest diversity, further inventories must be conducted along a wider elevation gradient to make these results more robust and better observe species turn over patterns and beta diversity.

How Much Carbon Do the Soils of Papua New Guinea Forests Contain?

Preliminary assessment of carbon in forest soils of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was done for 53 sites. Simple soil-landscape model was constructed to explain how soil carbon relates to landscape position and landform processes. Despite limitations of the soil survey, sufficient data have been obtained to indicate that the amount of carbon in forest soils surveyed so far is related primarily to their carbon-complexing capacity (CCC) which, in turn, depends on their geological parent material and parent rock. Soils were grouped into six categories based on their carbon content. The six categories ranged from very low 0–50 t/ha to extremely high 601–1,000 t/ha. Amalgamating the areas of mapped geological units on the basis of their likely CCC and their median carbon content has enabled the total carbon content of all forest soils in PNG to be estimated as 7,727 × 106 t. This figure is approximate and will be modified as more results are obtained and more sophisticated GIS-based landscape analysis is undertaken. The total carbon in forest biomass, as measured in this National Inventory and estimated for roots, is 4,006 × 106 t. Thus, the total carbon in PNG’s forests at present is estimated to be 11,733 × 106 t, with 66% stored in the soil and 34% in the biomass. The high proportion of ecosystem carbon held in the soil emphasises the importance of implementing soil conservation measures to maintain the total carbon resource in PNG’s forests.

Plural Valuation of Land and Insights for Achieving Sustainable Outcomes in Large-Scale Land Acquisition Projects

Large-scale land acquisition projects by foreign investors, also known as “land grabbing,” raise difficult questions about the processes of valuing land in Sub-Saharan Africa that the current literature does not sufficiently explore. Land acquisitions can help developing countries like Tanzania achieve their economic and development goals. Nonetheless, it can also threaten local livelihoods and well-being due to displacement, lack of access to natural capital, and conflicts between land users. Empirical evidence is limited on how local contexts affect the recognition and incorporation of multiple values that people hold about land into decisions on land acquisition projects in Tanzania. Plural valuation (PV) is needed to design more comprehensive and deliberative policy instruments that enhance nature’s contributions to people. This empirical study uses sociocultural valuation approaches to assess the diverse values of land in the Bagamoyo district of Tanzania, impacts of EcoEnergy land acquisition project on local livelihoods, and contextual factors that enable or hinder incorporating PV into decisions. The findings suggest that synergies and conflicting values of land exist, and PV can serve as a negotiation support tool to reconcile the differences and land conflicts. The success of PV relies on the (1) extent of partnership and participation, (2) design of asset valuation process, (3) stakeholder goals, and (4) sociopolitical context. Currently, the risks of land acquisition projects outweigh the benefits to people in rural Tanzania. However, to realize the sustainable and equitable flow of the contributions of land to Tanzanians, the government should consider improving the valuation processes by (i) fostering recognition of neglected voices and marginalized people, (ii) rectifying power imbalances and injustices that result from current land valuation processes, (iii) reinforcing customary land rights and compensation policies, and (iv) adhering to the principle of free, prior, and informed consent.