Combining preference ordering and contingent valuation methods to assess non market benefit of alternative afforestation projects

The application of the contingent valuation method (CVM) in this paper incorporates a prior preference ordering of several alternative future afforestation programmes which could be implemented in Ireland over the next decade. This particular experimental design is thereby shown to reveal the potentially conflicting preferences of different groups within society. These findings are used to devise appropriate CVM scenarios to take account, not only of the efficiency gains of choosing a single policy alternative over others, but also the effects on the distribution of non market benefit between different groups within society, arising from choice between alternatives. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Distribution of the common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) and landscape favourability for the species in Northern Ireland

The common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) is Ireland’s only native reptile, forming a key part of the island’s biodiversity. However, there is a general paucity of distributional and abundance data for the species. In this study, we collated incidental records for common lizard sightings to define the distribution of the species in Northern Ireland. Maximum entropy modelling was employed to describe species-habitat associations. The resulting predicted landscape favourability was used to evaluate the current status of the species based on the distribution of its maximum potential range in relation to the degree of fragmentation of remaining suitable habitat. In common with previous studies in the Republic of Ireland, sightings were highly clustered indicating under-recording, observer bias, and fragmentation of suitable habitat. A total of 98 records were collated from 1905 to 2009. The species was recorded in 63 (ca. 34%) of 186 × 10 km Northern Irish grid squares. Lizard occurrence was strongly and positively associated with landscapes dominated by heathland, bog and coastal habitats. The single best approximating model correctly classified the presence of lizards in 84.2% of cases. Upland heath, lowland raised bog and sand dune systems are all subject to Habitat Action Plans in Northern Ireland and are threatened by conversion to agriculture, afforestation, invasive species encroachment and infrastructural development. Consequently, remaining common lizard populations are likely to be small, isolated and highly fragmented. Establishment of an ecological network to preserve connectivity of remaining heath and bog will not only benefit remaining common lizard populations but biodiversity in general.

The vegetation and climate history of the last glacial cycle in a new pollen record from Lake Fimon (southern Alpine foreland, N-Italy)

The sediments of Like Fimon N Italy contain the first continuous archive of the Late Pleistocene environmental and climate history of the southern Alpine foreland We present here the detailed palynological record of the interval between Termination II and the List Glacial Maximum The age-depth model is obtained by radiocarbon dating in the uppermost part of the record Downward we con elated major forest expansion and contraction events to isotopic events in the Greenland Ice core records via a stepping-stone approach involving intermediate correlation to isotopic events dated by TIMS U/Th in Alpine and Apennine stalagmites and to pollen records from mime cores of the Iberian margin Modelled ages obtained by Bayesian analysis of deposition are thoroughly consistent with actual ages with maximum offset of +/- 1700 years Sharp expansion of broad-leaved temperate forest and of sudden water table rise mark the onset of the Last Interglacial after a treeless steppe phase at the end of penultimate glaciation This event is actually a two-step process which matches the two step rise observed in the isotopic record of the nearby Antro del Corchia stalagmite respectively dated to 132 5 +/- 2 5 and 129 +/- 1 5 ka At the interglacial decline mixed oak forests were replaced by oceanic mixed forests the latter persisting further for 7 ka till the end of the Eemian succession Warm-temperate woody species are still abundant at the Eemian end corroborating a steep gradient between central Europe and the Alpine divide at the inception of the last glacial After a stadial phase marked by moderate forest decline a new expansion of warm broad leaved forests interrupted by minor events and followed by mixed oceanic forests can be identified with the north-alpine Saint Germain I The spread of beech during the oceanic phase is a valuable circumalpine marker The subsequent stadial-interstadial succession lacking the telocratic oceanic phase is also consistent with the evidence at the north alpine foreland The Middle Wurmian (full glacial) is marked by persistence of mixed forests dominated by conifers but with significant lime and other broad leaved species A major Arboreal Pollen decrease is observed at modelled age of 38 7 +/- 0 5 ka (larch expansion and last occurrence of lime) which his been related to Heinrich Event 4 The evidence of afforestation persisting south of the Alps throughout most of MIS 3 contrasts with a boreal and continental landscape known for the northern alpine foreland pointing to a sharp rainfall boundary at the Alpine divide and to southern air circulation This is in agreement with the Alpine paleoglaciological record and is supported by the pressure and rainfall patterns designed by mesoscale paleoclimate simulations Strenghtening the continental high pressure during the full glacial triggered cyclogenesis in the middle latitude eastern Europe and orographic rainfall in the eastern Alps and the Balkanic mountains thus allowing forests development at current sea level altitudes (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Theoretical and spatial limits to the value of rural environmental benefits: Evidence from the forestry sector

The valuation of environmental benefits has been well researched in the forestry sector. This is not generally the case in the agriculture sector although schemes to compensate farmers for provision of officially defined environmental benefits are already in place throughout the European Union. This paper draws on empirical findings from forestry and deductions from economic theory to challenge the notion of the universality of such benefits. Empirical findings from forestry suggest recreational use value is location specific rather than widely spread. Household utility theory predicts zero willingness to pay to maintain the status quo level of a previously unpaid for environmental benefit (when provision is not perceived as under risk) but a positive willingness to pay for an increase. Thus, non use values cannot be attributed to the major part of existing commercial forestry area but to spatially restricted schemes such as additional afforestation or preservation of ancient natural woodlands.

The latest LGM culmination of the Garda Glacier (Italian Alps) and the onset of glacial termination. Age of glacial collapse and vegetation chronosequence

In the deglacial sequence of the largest end moraine system of the Italian Alps, we focused on the latest culmination of the Last Glacial Maximum, before a sudden downwasting of the piedmontane lobe occupying the modern lake basin. We obtained a robust chronology for this culmination and for the subsequent deglacial history by cross-radiocarbon dating of a proximal fluvioglacial plain and of a deglacial continuous lake sedimentation. We used reworked dinocysts to locate sources of glacial abrasion and to mark the input of glacial meltwater until depletion. The palynological record from postglacial lake sediments provided the first vegetation chronosequence directly reacting to the early Lateglacial withdrawal so far documented in the Alps.

Glacier collapse occurred soon after 17.46 +/- 0.2 ka cal BP, which is, the Manerba advance culmination. Basin deglaciation of several overdeepened foreland piedmont lakes on southern and northern sides of the Alps appears to be synchronous at millennial scale and near-synchronous with large-scale glacial retreat at global scale. The pioneering succession shows a first afforestation step at a median modeled age of 64 years after deglaciation, while rapid tree growth lagged 7 centuries. Between 16.4 +/- 0.16 and 15.5 +/- 0.16 ka cal BP, a regressive phase interrupted forest growth marking a Lateglacial phase of continental-dry climate predating GI-1. This event, spanning the most advanced phases of North-Atlantic H1, is consistently radiocarbon-framed at three deglacial lake records so far investigated on the Italian side of the Alps. Relationships with the Gschnitz stadial from the Alpine record of Lateglacial advances are discussed

Measuring non-use value of environmental goods using the contingent valuation method:problems of information and cognition and the application of cognitive questionnaire design methods

Much interest now focuses on the use of the contingent valuation method (CVM) to assess non-use value of environmental goods. The paper reviews recent literature and highlights particular problems of information provision and respondent knowledge, comprehension and cognition. These must be dealt with by economists in designing CVM surveys for eliciting non-use values. Cognitive questionnaire design methods are presented which invoke concepts from psychology and tools from cognitive survey design (focus groups and verbal reports) to reduce a complex environmnetal good into a meaningful commodity that can be valued by respondents in a contingent market. This process is illustrated with examples from the authors' own research valuing alternative afforestation programmes. -Authors

Abrupt Climate Changes: Climate and Biogeochemical consequences

Hosted in a wide depression within the Berici Hills (Venetian Plain), outside the maximum extent reached by LGM glaciers, Lake Fimon preserves an almost continuous archive of landscape and climate changes from the penultimate glacial maximum onwards. The stratigraphic succession deposited at the lake bottom has been investigated in three deep cores by means of pollen analysis, petrographic composition, magnetic susceptibility, LOI, and geochronology. Tephra layers have been identified and are currently under study.
Pollen data provide the first continuous vegetation record in northern Italy for the last 150 ky. Terrestrial vegetation varied from interglacial warm-temperate broad leaved to oceanic mixed forests, from boreal conifer forests to open forest-steppes of colder climate. Phases of major forest expansion and reduction have been correlated to isotopic events described in ice (NGRIP), stalagmite (Antro del Corchia) and marine records. Persistent afforestation recorded in northern Italy even during cold phases of the full pleniglacial is consistent with mesoscale paleoclimate simulations suggesting that a sharp rainfall gradient across the Alps enabled the survival of woody species in the southern alpine foreland.
Integrating litho- and biostratigraphical data, we identified sedimentation regìmes, accumulation rates, sediment sources and supply both for the Lake Fimon cores and the adjacent Venetian Plain, allowing a direct comparison with major glacial advances in the Alpine area, deglaciation pulses, and glacio-eustatic displacements of the northern Adriatic shoreline.