Local Area Plans: Best Practice Manual

This Manual has been prepared as a companion document for the Planning Guidelines, Local Area Plans: Creating Sustainable Communities - Guidelines for Planning Authorities (Hereafter referred to as ‘The Planning Guidelines’).

The aim of the Manual is to reinforce the key aspects of the Planning Guidelines by emphasising better and more consistent processes and highlighting examples of good practice.

User behaviour, best practice and the risks of non-target exposure associated with anticoagulant rodenticide use

Usage of anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) is an integral component of modern agriculture and is essential for the control of commensal rodent populations. However, the extensive deployment of ARs has led to widespread exposure of a range of non-target predatory birds and mammals to some compounds, in particular the second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SCARS). As a result, there has been considerable effort placed into devising voluntary best practice guidelines that increase the efficacy of rodent control and reduce the risk of non-target exposure. Currently, there is limited published information on actual practice amongst users or implementation of best practice. We assessed the behaviour of a typical group of users using an on-farm questionnaire survey. Most baited for rodents every year using SGARs. Most respondents were apparently aware of the risks of non-target exposure and adhered to some of the best practice recommendations but total compliance was rare. Our questionnaire revealed that users of first generation anticoagulant rodenticides rarely protected or checked bait stations, and so took little effort to prevent primary exposure of non-targets. Users almost never searched for and removed poisoned carcasses and many baited for prolonged periods or permanently. These factors are all likely to enhance the likelihood of primary and secondary exposure of non-target species. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Exploring Scale Effects of Best/Worst Rank Ordered Choice Data to Estimate Benefits of Tourism in Alpine Grazing Commons

In many environmental valuation applications standard sample sizes for choice modelling surveys are impractical to achieve. One can improve data quality using more in-depth surveys administered to fewer respondents. We report on a study using high quality rank-ordered data elicited with the best-worst approach. The resulting "exploded logit" choice model, estimated on 64 responses per person, was used to study the willingness to pay for external benefits by visitors for policies which maintain the cultural heritage of alpine grazing commons. We find evidence supporting this approach and reasonable estimates of mean WTP, which appear theoretically valid and policy informative. © The Author (2011).

Postglacial dispersal, rather than in situ glacial survival, best explains the disjunct distribution of the Lusitanian plant species Daboecia cantabrica (Ericaceae)

Aim:

The distribution of the Lusitanian flora and fauna, species which are found only in southern and western Ireland and in northern Spain and Portugal but which are absent from intervening countries, represents one of the classic conundrums of biogeography. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the distribution of the Lusitanian plant species Daboecia cantabrica was due to persistence in separate Irish and Iberian refugia, or has resulted from post-glacial recolonization followed by subsequent extinction of intervening populations.

Location:

Northern Spain and Co. Galway, western Ireland.

Methods:

Palaeodistribution modelling using Maxent was employed to identify putative refugial areas for D. cantabrica at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Phylogeographical analysis of samples from 64 locations in Ireland and Spain were carried out using a chloroplast marker (atpB–rbcL), the nuclear ITS region, and an anonymous nuclear single-copy locus.

Results:

The palaeodistribution model indicated areas with a high probability of survival for D. cantabrica at the LGM off the western coast of Galicia in Spain, and in the Bay of Biscay. Spanish populations exhibited substantially higher genetic diversity than Irish populations at all three loci, as well as geographical structuring of haplotypes within Spain consistent with divergence in separate refugia. Spanish populations also exhibited far more endemic haplotypes. Divergence time between Irish and Spanish populations associated with the putative Biscay refugium was estimated as 3.333–32 ka.

Main conclusions:

Our data indicate persistence by D. cantabrica throughout the LGM in two separate southern refugia: one in western Galicia and one in the area off the coast of western France which now lies in the Bay of Biscay. Spain was recolonized from both refugia, whilst Ireland was most likely recolonized from the Biscay refugium. On the balance of evidence across the three marker types and the palaeodistribution modelling, our findings do not support the idea of in situ survival of D. cantabrica in Ireland, contrary to earlier suggestions. The fact that we cannot conclusively rule out the existence of a small, more northerly refugium, however, highlights the need for further analysis of Lusitanian plant species.

Moving to evidence-based practice in long-term care:the role of a Best Practise Resource Centre in two long-term care settings.

In this article, the authors provide an overview on the development of a Long-Term Care Best Practise Resource Centre. The results of both a feasibility study and the outcomes of a 1-year demonstration project are presented. The demonstration project involved a hospital as the information service provider and two demonstration sites, a home care service agency and a nursing home that used the services of the Centre. The goals of the Centre were threefold: provide access to literature for staff in long-term care (LTC) settings; improve the information management skills of health care providers; and support research and the integration of best practices in LTC organizations. The results of the pilot study contributed to the development of a collaborative information access system for LTC clinicians and managers that provides timely, up-to-date information contributing to improving the quality of care for adults receiving LTC. Based on this demonstration project, strategies for successful innovation in LTC are identified.