Showing papers in "Annual Review of Environment and Resources in 2005"

Adaptive governance of social-ecological systems

Abstract: ▪ Abstract We explore the social dimension that enables adaptive ecosystem-based management. The review concentrates on experiences of adaptive governance of social-ecological systems during periods of abrupt change (crisis) and investigates social sources of renewal and reorganization. Such governance connects individuals, organizations, agencies, and institutions at multiple organizational levels. Key persons provide leadership, trust, vision, meaning, and they help transform management organizations toward a learning environment. Adaptive governance systems often self-organize as social networks with teams and actor groups that draw on various knowledge systems and experiences for the development of a common understanding and policies. The emergence of “bridging organizations” seem to lower the costs of collaboration and conflict resolution, and enabling legislation and governmental policies can support self-organization while framing creativity for adaptive comanagement efforts. A resilient social-eco...

Wetland resources : Status, trends, ecosystem services, and restorability

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Estimates of global wetland area range from 5.3 to 12.8 million km2. About half the global wetland area has been lost, but an international treaty (the 1971 Ramsar Convention) has helped 144 nations protect the most significant remaining wetlands. Because most nations lack wetland inventories, changes in the quantity and quality of the world's wetlands cannot be tracked adequately. Despite the likelihood that remaining wetlands occupy less than 9% of the earth's land area, they contribute more to annually renewable ecosystem services than their small area implies. Biodiversity support, water quality improvement, flood abatement, and carbon sequestration are key functions that are impaired when wetlands are lost or degraded. Restoration techniques are improving, although the recovery of lost biodiversity is challenged by invasive species, which thrive under disturbance and displace natives. Not all damages to wetlands are reversible, but it is not always clear how much can be retained through re...

The role of protected areas in conserving biodiversity and sustaining local livelihoods

Abstract: ▪ Abstract The world's system of protected areas has grown exponentially over the past 25 years, particularly in developing countries where biodiversity is greatest. Concurrently, the mission of protected areas has expanded from biodiversity conservation to improving human welfare. The result is a shift in favor of protected areas allowing local resource use. Given the multiple purposes of many protected areas, measuring effectiveness is difficult. Our review of 49 tropical protected areas shows that parks are generally effective at curtailing deforestation within their boundaries. But deforestation in surrounding areas is isolating protected areas. Many initiatives now aim to link protected areas to local socioeconomic development. Some of these initiatives have been successful, but in general expectations need to be tempered regarding the capacity of protected areas to alleviate poverty. Greater attention must also be paid to the broader policy context of biodiversity loss, poverty, and unsustainable la...

Feedback in the plant-soil system

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Feedback between plants and the soil is frequently invoked on the basis of evidence of mutual effects. Feedback can operate through pathways involving soil physical properties, chemical and biogeochemical properties and processes, and biological properties, including the community composition of the microbiota and soil fauna. For each pathway, we review the mechanistic basis and assess the evidence that feedback occurs. We suggest that several properties of feedback systems (for example, their complexity, specificity, and strength relative to other ecological factors, as well as the temporal and spatial scales over which they operate) be considered. We find that the evidence of feedback is strongest for plants growing in extreme environments and for plant-mutualist or plant-enemy interactions. We conclude with recommendations for a more critical appraisal of feedback and for new directions of research. Let us not make arbitrary conjectures about the greatest matters. Heraclitus (1)

AQUACULTURE AND OCEAN RESOURCES: Raising Tigers of the Sea

Abstract: ▪ Abstract With continued human pressure on marine fisheries and ocean resources, aquaculture has become one of the most promising avenues for increasing marine fish production in the future. This review presents recent trends and future prospects for the aquaculture industry, with particular attention paid to ocean farming and carnivorous finfish species. The benefits of farming carnivorous fish have been challenged; extensive research on salmon has shown that farming such fish can have negative ecological, social, and health impacts on areas and parties vastly separated in space. Similar research is only beginning for the new carnivorous species farmed or ranched in marine environments, such as cod, halibut, and bluefin tuna. These fish have large market potential and are likely to play a defining role in the future direction of the aquaculture industry. We review the available literature on aquaculture development of carnivorous finfish species and assess its potential to relieve human pressure on mari...

Productive uses of energy for rural development

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review utilizes the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) working definition of “productive uses of energy,” which states “in the context of providing modern energy services in rural areas, a productive use of energy is one that involves the application of energy derived mainly from renewable resources to create goods and/or services either directly or indirectly for the production of income or value.” The definition reflects the shift toward the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Traditionally, the productive uses of energy have been rather narrowly defined. The focus has been on the direct impact of energy use on gross domestic product (GDP) and the importance of motive power for agriculture. This conventional view has some utility in understanding the nature of development at the national and regional level; however, in order to respond to international development goals while maintaining pace with an ever-evolving underst...

Righteous oil? human rights, the oil complex, and corporate social responsibility

Abstract: ▪ Abstract One of the most important aspects of the rise of post-1945 global capitalism has been the call for transnational corporations to conform to basic human rights principles. This chapter reviews the efforts within the oil industry (with a particular focus on their operations in the less-developed countries) to develop corporate social responsibility and the related development of voluntary, legal, and statutory programs by governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), civic groups, and multilateral agencies to ensure that the oil industry is compliant with important human, social, political, and environmental rights. In reviewing these developments, I outline the current political economy of the oil industry, new bodies of research on the relations between oil, violence, and human rights violations, which include case studies of the human rights records of transnational and joint-venture oil operations.

ARCHAEOLOGY AND GLOBAL CHANGE: The Holocene Record

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Although human-induced changes to the global environment and natural biotic resources, collectively labeled “global change” and the “biodiversity crisis,” have accelerated with industrialization over the past 300 years, such changes have a much longer history. Particularly since the rise of agriculturally based societies and associated population expansion during the early Holocene, humans have had cumulative and often irreversible impacts on natural landscapes and biotic resources worldwide. Archaeologists, often working closely with natural scientists in interdisciplinary projects, have accumulated a large body of empirical evidence documenting such changes as deforestation, spread of savannahs, increased rates of erosion, permanent rearrangements of landscapes for agriculture, resource depression and depletion (and in many cases, extinction) in prehistory. In some areas and time periods, environmental change led to long-term negative consequences for regional human populations, whereas in ot...

HOW ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS CHANGE WITH DEVELOPMENT: The Epidemiologic and Environmental Risk Transitions Revisited

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Transition frameworks are used to envision the important changes that occur during economic development from poor to middle-income or rich countries. We explain the derivation of and use data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) and Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) projects of the World Health Organization (WHO) to explore the classic epidemiologic transition framework, which describes the changes in causes of illness and death during economic development. We provide the first full empirical test of the environmental risk transition framework, which describes the shift in environmental risks during development from household, community, and global risk factors. We find that the simplistic conclusions commonly drawn about the epidemiologic transition, in particular the increase in chronic diseases with development, are not supported by current data; in contrast, the conceptual framework of the environmental risk transition is broadly supported in a cross-sectional analysis. We also describe ...

Private-sector participation in the water and sanitation sector

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review examines experience with private-sector participation (PSP) in the water supply and sanitation (W&S) sector. Common ideological, theoretical, and practical justifications for and objections to PSP in water and sanitation are presented. Review of empirical evidence suggests that where gains in efficiency, investment, and environmental stewardship have been realized through privatization, they have often been achieved through unpopular yet predictable strategies such as retrenchment and tariff increases. Challenges persist regarding ensuring access to and affordability of services for low-income households during privatization, and evidence suggests that PSP will not benefit the majority of the 1.2 billion people who lack access to improved water supply and live in the world's poorest countries. The challenging features of W&S economics, along with mounting public opposition to privatization and globalization in the sector, will likely reduce PSP in the sector over the short term, par...

Economics of Pollution Trading for SO2 and NOx

Abstract: ▪ Abstract For years economists have urged policy makers to use market-based approaches such as cap-and-trade programs or emission taxes to control pollution. The sulfur dioxide (SO2) allowance market created by Title IV of the 1990 U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments represents the first real test of the wisdom of economists’ advice. Subsequent urban and regional applications of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission allowance trading took shape in the 1990s in the United States, culminating in a second large experiment in emissions trading in the eastern United States that began in 2003. This review provides an overview of the economic rationale for emissions trading and a description of the major U.S. programs to reduce SO2 and NOx pollution. We evaluate these programs along measures of performance, which include cost savings, environmental integrity, and incentives for technological innovation. We offer lessons for the design of future programs including, most importantly, those to reduce carbon dioxide.

Regional atmospheric pollution and transboundary air quality management

Abstract: ▪ Abstract The regional nature of several important air pollutants, which include acids, ozone, particulate matter, mercury, and persistent organics (POPs), is widely recognized by researchers and decision makers. Such pollutants are transported regionally over scales from about 100 to a few 1000s of kilometers, large enough to cross state, provincial, national, and even continental boundaries. Managing these regional pollutants requires overcoming political, economic, and cultural differences to establish cooperation between multiple jurisdictions, and it requires recognition of the linkages between pollutants and of impacts at different geographic scales. Here, regional dynamics of the pollutants are discussed, addressing them individually and as a tightly linked physical and chemical system. Collaborative efforts to characterize and manage regional pollution are presented, along with potential directions for future efforts.