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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
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Results for conservation
11 results foundAuthor: Ervin, J., N. Sekhran, A. Dinu. S. Gidda, M. Vergeichik andJ. Mee. Title: Protected Areas for the 21st Century: Lessons from UNDP/GEF's Portfolio Summary: The world’s biodiversity – the species, ecosystems and ecological processes that compose the natural world – are of incalculable value to humanity. The world’s agricultural systems depend upon biodiversity to sustain genetic plant and animal diversity, to provide pollination services, and to maintain irrigation services. The world’s cities depend upon biodiversity to provide clean drinking water to their burgeoning populations. The world’s coastal communities, in which one-half to two-thirds of all of humanity resides, depend upon the natural infrastructure of coral reefs, sea grass beds, and mangroves to buffer them from the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise and increased storm surges. The world’s inland communities depend upon the natural infrastructure of healthy forests, grasslands and wetlands to buffer them against increased drought, flooding, disease and natural disasters. While biodiversity provides the fundamental goods and services upon which all life depends, including human societies, it is of particular importance to the 2.7 billion people – more than a quarter of the world’s population – who survive on less than $2 a day. As much as 70 percent of the world’s poorest people depend critically upon biodiversity to provide them with life’s most basic necessities, including food, water, shelter, medicine and their livelihoods, and a sixth of the world’s population depends upon the biodiversity within protected areas for their livelihoods. Despite the fundamental importance of biodiversity to human life and social development, the world is facing unprecedented and largely irreversible losses in biodiversity. Current extinction rates are approaching 1,000 times the background rate, and may climb to over 10,000 times the background rate during the next century if present trends in species loss and climate change continue. As many as 70 percent of the world’s known species are at risk of extinction by 2100 if global temperatures rise more than 3.5o Celsius. The loss of biodiversity and the resulting destabilization of ecosystem services undermine the very foundations of human welfare – in short, the social costs of biodiversity loss are enormous and immeasurable. Protected areas are the cornerstone of global biodiversity conservation. Over the past 40 years, governments and non-governmental organizations alike have made unprecedented investments in the establishment of protected areas around the world. As a result, the world’s terrestrial protected areas encompassed more than 18 million sq km in 2010, compared with just over 2 million sq km in 1970. As the first decade of the 21st Century comes to a close, emerging drivers of change are transforming our concept of protected areas – what they are and what they should do. Protected areas are expected to do more – in terms of their ecological, social and economic contributions – than ever before. Not only are they expected to provide habitat for endangered wildlife, but also to contribute to livelihoods for local communities, to generate tourism revenues to bolster local and national economies, and to play a key role in mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, among many other diverse functions and contributions. Purpose and objectives of this publication The following report looks at how changing 21st Century expectations about the roles and functions of protected areas are beginning to shape protected area management around the world and identifies emerging best practices for protected areas under a new paradigm that views protected areas as part of a planetary life support system. The report is based on case studies drawn largely from the portfolio of projects financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The GEF is the world’s most significant multilateral funding source for protected areas. Since the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas was ratified in 2004, UNDP/ GEF has supported work in more than 700 protected areas around the world, covering nearly every goal, target and action under the Programme of Work. Following this introductory section, which presents background on historical and evolving concepts of protected areas and their roles, the report is organized according to eight key themes that are shaping protected areas management in the 21st Century. These themes range from enabling policy environments to management planning, governance, participation, and sustainable finance, to name but a few. For each of the eight themes, the report presents a snapshot of the current status of implementation, a set of emerging best practices, and one or more case studies that illustrate innovative and successful approaches. Details: New York: United Nations Development Programme and Montreal: Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010. 132p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 23, 2013 at: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/environment-energy/ecosystems_and_biodiversity/protected_areas_forthe21stcentury.html Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/environment-energy/ecosystems_and_biodiversity/protected_areas_forthe21stcentury.html Shelf Number: 128095 Keywords: BiodiversityConservationNatural ResourcesWildlife Management |
Author: Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change Title: Realising Rights, Protecting Forests: An Alternative Vision for Reducing Deforestation Summary: The Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change is a network of southern and northern NGOs representing around 100 civil society and Indigenous Peoples' organizations from 38 countries, formed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Accra, Ghana in 2008. The Caucus works to place the rights of indigenous and forest communities at the centre of negotiations on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), and to ensure that efforts to reduce deforestation promote good governance and are not a substitute for emission reductions in industrialised countries. In this report the Caucus proposes an alternative vision for achieving the objective of reducing deforestation, arguing for policies and actions that would tackle the drivers of deforestation, rather than focusing exclusively on carbon. Drawing on case studies from organisations with experience of working with forest communities, the report highlights problems linked to the implementation of REDD and suggests ways in which policies to reduce deforestation can actually work on the ground. Through case studies from selected countries the report highlights three critical components: full and effective participation (Indonesia, Ecuador, Democratic Republic of Congo); secured and equitable land rights (Brazil, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea) and community-based forest management (Tanzania, Nepal). Details: London: Rainforest Foundation UK, 2010. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 25, 2013 at: http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/Accra_Report_ENG Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/Accra_Report_ENG Shelf Number: 128501 Keywords: ConservationDeforestationForest ManagementIllegal LoggingNatural Resources |
Author: Erdenechuluun, T. Title: Wood Supply in Mongolia: The Legal and Illegal Economies Summary: The forests of Mongolia protect watersheds and water supply, and as a source of timber, fuel wood, pine nuts, berries and game they are saviors and sustainers of livelihoods. Mongolia's forestry sector is currently in crisis, with illegal logging devastating accessible forests, particularly around urban centers. Lack of reliable data means that estimates of timber consumption vary widely, but levels are clearly well above the sustainable harvest for Mongolia's slow growing forests. Lack of planning and active management, lack of inventory, loss of capacity, and corruption have together led to significant degradation of forest quality, and have created virtual anarchy in the forestry industry. The publication reviews the current situation, examines action to date and makes a series of recommendations for bringing control to, and prosperity from, Mongolia's forestry sector. This report represents a novel and unconventional approach to the very serious subject of illegal wood supply in Mongolia. Rather than just relying on official statistics, which have many drawbacks, the team sought information from a range of sources, such as direct interviews with government officials and others working in the sector; field observation of illegal activities, often in the dead of night; and indirect approaches using various data sources to test assumptions. Details: Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2006. 88p. Source: Internet Resource:Discussion Papers, East Asia and Pacific Environment and Social Development Department; Accessed May 22, 2013 at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/MONGOLIAEXTN/Resources/mong_timber_int_for_web.pdf Year: 2006 Country: Mongolia URL: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/MONGOLIAEXTN/Resources/mong_timber_int_for_web.pdf Shelf Number: 128781 Keywords: ConservationForest ManagementForestsIllegal Logging (Mongolia)Natural ResourcesTimber |
Author: Smith, Ardea Title: The Seductive Orchid: A look into the Justifications and Motivations Behind the Illicit Flora Economy Summary: In a world that is focused on conserving what is deemed ‘sexy’ no creature better fits this description than the exotic and colorful orchid. The history of this often delicately depicted flora is a sordid tale that spans the globe, from the murky swamps of the Fakahatchee State Preserve in Florida to the Amazonian tropics of Brazil and Borneo where deadly tropical diseases and harsh wilderness threaten orchid hunters at every turn. Set against the backdrop of such foreboding environments, the orchid stands out as a sophisticated version of the wild area in which it lives, its vibrant colors and twisted leaves tempered by its smooth petals and soft curves. “Orchids are subtle, delicate, voluptuous and masters of disguise. They take on the shapes, scents and colours that seduce the insects they feed upon. But they are best of all at seducing humans” (You can get off alcohol and drugs, but you can never get off orchids. Never 2006). How have orchids become so closely associated with such avid exotic sexual appeal? One of the primary interests in writing this paper was to understand how seduction became so closely associated with orchids and how this definitional framework for understanding orchids in the Western world influences or drives the illicit orchid market. The metaphors and descriptors governing the orchid market connect directly to the current motivations and justifications used by orchid smugglers and orchid consumers to continue their hunt for wild flora. An investigation into the behavioral component of the illicit orchid trade presents some clues to the obstacles facing the crackdown on orchid smuggling but also prompts a larger question; should we as citizens care and work to change the behavior of orchid smugglers? Biodiversity and sustainability of our collective ecosystem are two powerful motivators to stop the harvesting of wild orchids. However, in assessing the overall damage of the wild orchid industry to the environment a study of this illicit economy runs into the problem of the “politics of numbers” (Dillman 2012) that encompasses issues of rarity and taxonomy. With a sometimes-cloudy view of the dangers of continued orchid trafficking, it is difficult to always formulate and justify a need to curb orchid smuggling activities. The solutions offered in this paper encapsulate the difficulties of dealing with an illicit economy and in particular, the seductive orchid. Details: Tacoma, WA: University of Puget Sound, 2011(?). 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 25, 2013 at: http://www.pugetsound.edu/files/resources/11228_Smith.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://www.pugetsound.edu/files/resources/11228_Smith.pdf Shelf Number: 128830 Keywords: ConservationIllicit Orchid TradeNatural ResourcesOrchidsTheft of Plants |
Author: International Institute for Environment and Development Title: Conservation, crime and communities: Case studies of efforts to engage local communities in tackling illegal wildlife trade Summary: Wildlife crime is at the top of the international conservation agenda. Current strategies for addressing it focus on law enforcement, reducing consumer demand and engaging local communities in conservation. To date considerably more attention has been paid to the first two strategies than to the third. This volume of case studies explores a range of different models of community engagement - from awareness - raising to community-based rapid response teams - and a wider range of conservation incentives - from land leases, to sustainable use schemes, to reinvigorated cultural institutions and social status. The case studies highlight that while community engagement is not a panacea for tackling wildlife crime - and indeed there are examples where it has proved to be a real challenge - it can, under the right circumstances, be highly effective. We need to learn from these examples. In the long run, the survival of some of the world's most iconic wildlife species lies in the hands of the communities who live alongside them. Details: London: IIED, 2015. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 12, 2015 at: http://pubs.iied.org/14648IIED.html Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://pubs.iied.org/14648IIED.html Shelf Number: 134915 Keywords: Community-Based ApproachesConservationIllegal Wildlife TradeWildlife Crime |
Author: Pearce, Fred Title: Protecting Forests, Respecting Rights: Options for EU Action on deforestation and forest degradation Summary: This report examines the EU's "Deforestation Footprint" - its role in global deforestation. It looks at important action the EU has taken, through the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan to improve how forests are owned and managed in timber-exporting countries and to prevent imports of illegal tropical timber entering EU borders. Details: Moreton in Marsh, UK: Fern, 2015. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2015 at: http://www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Protecting%20Forests%20Respecting%20Rights.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Protecting%20Forests%20Respecting%20Rights.pdf Shelf Number: 135077 Keywords: ConservationDeforestation (Europe)ForestsIllegal LoggingNatural Resources |
Author: Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) Title: Permitting Crime: How palm oil expansion drives illegal logging in Indonesia Summary: The clear-cutting of forests to make way for oil palm plantations is driving a wave of illegal logging in Indonesia, fundamentally undermining efforts to bring much-needed reform to the nation's forestry and timber sectors. A new report released today by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Permitting Crime: How palm oil expansion drives illegal logging in Indonesia, reveals how a widespread culture of corruption and poor law enforcement is generating a flood of illicit timber as plantations surge into frontier forests. In-depth case studies of blatant violations of licensing procedures and other laws in Central Kalimantan - a hotspot for forest crime - detailed in the report include: - outright violations of plantation licensing, timber and environmental regulations by firms clear-cutting forests in some of Indonesia's richest tracts of rainforest; - clear links between a series of palm oil concessions, a corrupt regent and one of the highest-profile Indonesian political graft cases of recent years; - attempts by a palm oil firm to pay US$45,000 to police to bury an investigation into its illegal operations; - local governments selling-out customary communities and facilitating the transfer of millions of dollars of their resources to private firms. The report explains how almost all palm plantations nationwide are willfully evading Indonesia's Timber Legality Verification System (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu, or SVLK), a mandatory law implemented in September 2010 as a cornerstone of efforts to ensure only legal timber is produced in the country. Details: Washington, DC; London: EIA, 2014. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2015 at: http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Permitting-Crime.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Indonesia URL: http://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Permitting-Crime.pdf Shelf Number: 135244 Keywords: ConservationForestsIllegal LoggingOffenses Against the Environment (Indonesia)Palm Oil |
Author: Sahlhoff, Michelle Title: Components of Short-Term Success in Projects Targeting Illegal Logging Summary: Illegal logging, perpetuated by corruption, is a serious problem in developing countries, specifically Brazil, Indonesia, and Uganda. Development projects focused on fighting illegal logging have not adequately been analyzed to assess the approaches taken in fighting corruption in addition to an academic literature review. Through a literature review and analysis of development problems, this research focused on the roles of the project donor, implementer, cost, duration, participants, levels of participation, mechanisms, and success. Next, a summary of observations for success from the projects were compiled to provide a thorough understanding of projects fighting illegal logging in the three focus countries. The results of the literature review produced causes and effects of illegal logging in states, as well as recommended methods for combatting and preventing illegal logging with a focus on the corruption that can drive illegal logging. The analysis of reviewed projects observed that none of the components identified appeared to be strongly necessary or unnecessary for a project to be successful or unsuccessful across countries, but some useful observations within countries were identified. The summary of reasons for the successfulness and unsuccessfulness of projects produced five themes: ineffective relocation, successful economic mechanisms, coordination, satellite technology, and appropriate community management. Building on this, a theoretical framework was created that prepared hypotheses focusing on state capacity, classification of corruption, and implementing partner, as well as focusing on coordination and close relationships with stakeholders while utilizing satellite imagery to function as a check to ensure integrity between all actors. Details: Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 2012. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 21, 2015 at: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/12102/1/Thesis_Revised_Final.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Brazil URL: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/12102/1/Thesis_Revised_Final.pdf Shelf Number: 135748 Keywords: ConservationCorruption Forests Illegal Logging Offenses Against the Environment |
Author: Assuncao, Juliano Title: DETERring Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Environmental Monitoring and Law Enforcement Summary: The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. In Brazil, the forest originally occupied over four million km2 an area equivalent to almost half of continental Europe. Amazon deforestation rates escalated in the early 2000s, peaking at over 27,000 km2 in 2004, but fell sharply to about 5,000 km2 in 2011 (INPE [2012]). Empirical evidence presented in a previous CPI/PUC-Rio study suggests that changes in Brazilian conservation policies helped address the challenge of protecting this immense area and significantly contributed to the recent deforestation slowdown. In this study, we take a step further and answer the question: Which specific policy efforts contributed most to the reduction in Amazon deforestation? Our analysis reveals that the implementation of the Real Time System for Detection of Deforestation (DETER), a satellite-based system that enables frequent and quick identification of deforestation hot spots, greatly enhanced monitoring and targeting capacity, making it easier for law enforcers to act upon areas with illegal deforestation activity. This improvement in monitoring and law enforcement was the main driver of the 2000s deforestation slowdown. We estimate that DETER-based environmental monitoring and law enforcement policies prevented the clearing of over 59,500 km2 of Amazon forest area from 2007 through 2011. Deforestation observed during this period totaled 41,500 km2 59% less than in the absence of the policy change. We also find that the policy change had no impact on agricultural production. Details: s.l.: Climate Policy Initiative, 2013. 36p; executive summary. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 13, 2016 at: https://climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/deterring-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-environmental-monitoring-and-law-enforcement/ Year: 2013 Country: Brazil URL: https://climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/deterring-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-environmental-monitoring-and-law-enforcement/ Shelf Number: 144911 Keywords: ConservationDeforestationEnvironmental Law EnforcementForestsIllegal LoggingOffenses Against the Environment |
Author: White, Natasha Title: The White Gold of Jihad: violence, legitimisation and contestation in anti-poaching strategies Summary: Since 2011, elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade have been labelled a "serious threat to peace and security". Rigorous military training and weapons have been provided to rangers, national armies have been deployed in protected areas, and shoot-to-kill policies have been (re-)adopted. Within the framework of political ecology, the article critically approaches this "war" for Africa's elephants. Adopting the tools of discourse analysis, it explores how such violence has been legitimized by the "transnational conservation community" and, in turn, how this has been contested by other actors. It argues that the "war" has been legitimized by drawing on two broader threat discourses – the ivory-crime-terror linkage and the 'ChinaAfrica' threat. Through the discursive creation of a boundary object, poaching has 'become' a human concern that appeals to actors typically outside the conservation community. In the final Section, the case of the Lord's Resistance Army's poaching activities in Garamba National Park is explored, to show how the knowledge upon which judgements are made and decisions are taken is ahistorical, depoliticized and based on a series of untenable assumptions Details: Unpublished paper, 2013. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 6, 2017 at: http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_21/White.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Congo, Democratic Republic URL: http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_21/White.pdf Shelf Number: 145586 Keywords: Animal PoachingConservationElephantsIvoryWildlife Crime |
Author: Pant, Hitesh Title: Zero poaching and social sustainability in protected areas : a study of Chitwan National Park, Nepal Summary: Protected areas (PAs) embody a historical legacy of value contestation and human exclusion. While the rise of community-based conservation in the 1980s sought to reconfigure this mechanism by running a counter narrative arguing that biodiversity conservation and development were mutually reinforcing objectives, exclusionary PAs continue to maintain a strong position in the conservation discourse. The militarization of PAs as a response to the rise in global poaching has allowed state and non-state conservation agencies to wield extensive power as a moral imperative to preserve iconic species. This undertaking is notable in the recent "zero-poaching" campaign, which aims to shut all incidences of illicit mega-fauna poaching within national parks. Supported by prominent conservation groups, the campaign has been able garner momentum after Nepal, one of its member countries, declared four non-consecutive years of zero poaching in its PAs. While conservation groups in Nepal repeatedly stress that they work in tandem with local groups in park buffer zones to deter wildlife crime and support community development, the mechanisms of these social transformations are less evident in the campaigns' media reports, and their modes of operation less scrutinized. Drawing on concepts developed from Antonio Gramsci's studies on cultural hegemony, I review the historical development of anti-poaching from its roots in England in the 18th century to its internationalization in the mid twentieth century. The modern turn towards heightened militarization as a win-win solution for conservation and development is specifically studied within the context of Nepal's Chitwan National Park (CNP), which has been globally recognized as a model for species protection after achieving successive years of zero poaching. I apply a document analysis to test the extent to which CNP adheres to zero poaching’s objective of local participation and inclusive development. Both state and non-state organizations have utilized the mass media to promote the idea of community-led conservation, but the park’s five year management plan reveals that it fails to fully incorporate guidelines from the zero poaching toolkit. Zero poaching marks a turn within international conservation to mainstream an anti-poaching strategy that follows on sustainability’s criteria of transdisciplinary research, mainly by promoting a management technique that aims to account for different value systems, views and interests of stakeholders across the supply chain of wildlife crime. However, to turn into a counter-hegemonic force in conservation, it needs to become a reactionary agent against the old framing of human-wildlife conflict and poaching that still inhibits holistic social sustainability in its target regions Details: Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, 2016. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed March 6, 2017 at: http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8893925&fileOId=8893927 Year: 2016 Country: Nepal URL: http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8893925&fileOId=8893927 Shelf Number: 141355 Keywords: Animal PoachingConservationElephantsIvoryPublicity CampaignsWildlife Crime |