Improving the organisation and commercialisation of small coffee and cocoa producers in the Northern Amazon Region of Ecuador

Coffee and cocoa represent the main sources of income for small farmers in the Northern Amazon Region of Ecuador. The provinces of Orellana and Sucumbios, as border areas, have benefited from investments made by many public and private institutions. Many of the projects carried out in the area have been aimed at energising the production of coffee and cocoa, strengthening the producers’ associations and providing commercialisation infrastructure. Improving the quality of life of this population threatened by poverty and high migration flows mainly from Colombia is a significant challenge. This paper presents research highlighting the importance of associative commercialisation to raising income from coffee and cocoa. The research draws on primary information obtained during field work, and from official information from the Ministry of Agriculture. The study presents an overview of current organisational structures, initiatives of associative commercialisation, stockpiling of infrastructure and ownership regimes, as well as estimates for both ‘robusta’ coffee and national cocoa production and income. The analysis of the main constraints presents different alternatives for the implementation of public land policies. These policies are aimed at mitigating the problems associated with the organisational structure of the producers, with processes of commercialisation and with environmental aspects, among others.

Poverty targeting and income impact of subsidised credit on accessed households in the Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam

This paper uses the data of 1338 rural households in the Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam to examine the extent to which subsidised credit targets the poor and its impacts. Principal Component Analysis and Propensity Score Matching were used to evaluate the depth of outreach and the income impact of credit. To address the problem of model uncertainty, the approach of Bayesian Model Average applied to the probit model was used. Results showed that subsidised credit successfully targeted the poor households with 24.10% and 69.20% of clients falling into the poorest group and the three bottom groups respectively. Moreover, those who received subsidised credit make up 83% of ethnic minority households. These results indicate that governmental subsidies are necessary to reach the poor and low income households, who need capital but are normally bypassed by commercial banks. Analyses also showed that ethnicity and age of household heads, number of helpers, savings, as well as how affected households are by shocks were all factors that further explained the probability at which subsidised credit has been assessed. Furthermore, recipients obtained a 2.61% higher total income and a 5.93% higher farm income compared to non-recipients. However, these small magnitudes of effects are statistically insignificant at a 5% level. Although the subsidised credit is insufficient to significantly improve the income of the poor households, it possibly prevents these households of becoming even poorer.

BILATERAL ANOMALY IN EVANDROMYIA EVANDROI (DIPTERA: PSYCHODIDAE: PHLEBOTOMINAE) CAPTURED IN VICENCIA MUNICIPALITY, NORTHERN RAINFOREST REGION OF PERNAMBUCO STATE, BRAZIL

Approximately 800 species of phlebotomine sand flies, many of which are vectors of Leishmania, have been described. Besides morphological similarities within groups, the occurrence of anomalies within a species may lead to an erroneous description of new species. This paper describes one phlebotomine sand fly, Evandromyia evandroi, with a symmetrical bilateral anomaly in the number of spines on the gonostyle. In this specimen, the anomalous spine is located in the external region of gonostyle, inserted between the upper external and the lower external spines. It is important to document morphological anomalies, so as to avoid erroneous sand fly identifications.

Shallow and deep deformation in northern Apennines region using seismological data

For its particular position and the complex geological history, the Northern Apennines has been considered as a natural laboratory to apply several kinds of investigations. By the way, it is complicated to joint all the knowledge about the Northern Apennines in a unique picture that explains the structural and geological emplacement that produced it. The main goal of this thesis is to put together all information on the deformation - in the crust and at depth - of this region and to describe a geodynamical model that takes account of it. To do so, we have analyzed the pattern of deformation in the crust and in the mantle. In both cases the deformation has been studied using always information recovered from earthquakes, although using different techniques. In particular the shallower deformation has been studied using seismic moment tensors information. For our purpose we used the methods described in Arvidsson and Ekstrom (1998) that allowing the use in the inversion of surface waves [and not only of the body waves as the Centroid Moment Tensor (Dziewonski et al., 1981) one] allow to determine seismic source parameters for earthquakes with magnitude as small as 4.0. We applied this tool in the Northern Apennines and through this activity we have built up the Italian CMT dataset (Pondrelli et al., 2006) and the pattern of seismic deformation using the Kostrov (1974) method on a regular grid of 0.25 degree cells. We obtained a map of lateral variations of the pattern of seismic deformation on different layers of depth, taking into account the fact that shallow earthquakes (within 15 km of depth) in the region occur everywhere while most of events with a deeper hypocenter (15-40 km) occur only in the outer part of the belt, on the Adriatic side. For the analysis of the deep deformation, i.e. that occurred in the mantle, we used the anisotropy information characterizing the structure below the Northern Apennines. The anisotropy is an earth properties that in the crust is due to the presence of aligned fluid filled cracks or alternating isotropic layers with different elastic properties while in the mantle the most important cause of seismic anisotropy is the lattice preferred orientation (LPO) of the mantle minerals as the olivine. This last is a highly anisotropic mineral and tends to align its fast crystallographic axes (a-axis) parallel to the astenospheric flow as a response to finite strain induced by geodynamic processes. The seismic anisotropy pattern of a region is measured utilizing the shear wave splitting phenomenon (that is the seismological analogue to optical birefringence). Here, to do so, we apply on teleseismic earthquakes recorded on stations located in the study region, the Sileny and Plomerova (1996) approach. The results are analyzed on the basis of their lateral and vertical variations to better define the earth structure beneath Northern Apennines. We find different anisotropic domains, a Tuscany and an Adria one, with a pattern of seismic anisotropy which laterally varies in a similar way respect to the seismic deformation. Moreover, beneath the Adriatic region the distribution of the splitting parameters is so complex to request an appropriate analysis. Therefore we applied on our data the code of Menke and Levin (2003) which allows to look for different models of structures with multilayer anisotropy. We obtained that the structure beneath the Po Plain is probably even more complicated than expected. On the basis of the results obtained for this thesis, added with those from previous works, we suggest that slab roll-back, which created the Apennines and opened the Tyrrhenian Sea, evolved in the north boundary of Northern Apennines in a different way from its southern part. In particular, the trench retreat developed primarily south of our study region, with an eastward roll-back. In the northern portion of the orogen, after a first stage during which the retreat was perpendicular to the trench, it became oblique with respect to the structure.

Opportunity Returns : Northern Stateline region.

Describes Opportunity Returns, Governor Blagojevich's plan for aiding economic growth in Illinois, and outlines the plan's goals for the region consisting of Boone, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

Rangeland profitability in the northern Gulf region of Queensland: understanding beef business complexity and the subsequent impact on land resource management and environmental outcomes

The farm-gate value of extensive beef production from the northern Gulf region of Queensland, Australia, is ~$150 million annually. Poor profitability and declining equity are common issues for most beef businesses in the region. The beef industry relies primarily on native pasture systems and studies continue to report a decline in the condition and productivity of important land types in the region. Governments and Natural Resource Management groups are investing significant resources to restore landscape health and productivity. Fundamental community expectations also include broader environmental outcomes such as reducing beef industry greenhouse gas emissions. Whole-of-business analysis results are presented from 18 extensive beef businesses (producers) to highlight the complex social and economic drivers of management decisions that impact on the natural resource and environment. Business analysis activities also focussed on improving enterprise performance. Profitability, herd performance and greenhouse emission benchmarks are documented and discussed.

Northern Mediterranean climate since the Middle Pleistocene: a 637 ka stable isotope record from Lake Ohrid (Albania/Macedonia)

Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania) is an ancient lake with unique biodiversity and a site of global significance for investigating the influence of climate, geological, and tectonic events on the generation of endemic populations. Here, we present oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotope data from carbonate over the upper 243 m of a composite core profile recovered as part of the Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO) project. The investigated sediment succession covers the past ca. 637 ka. Previous studies on short cores from the lake (up to 15 m, < 140 ka) have indicated the total inorganic carbon (TIC) content of sediments to be highly sensitive to climate change over the last glacial–interglacial cycle. Sediments corresponding to warmer periods contain abundant endogenic calcite; however, an overall low TIC content in glacial sediments is punctuated by discrete bands of early diagenetic authigenic siderite. Isotope measurements on endogenic calcite (δ18Oc and δ13Cc) reveal variations both between and within interglacials that suggest the lake has been subject to palaeoenvironmental change on orbital and millennial timescales. We also measured isotope ratios from authigenic siderite (δ18Os and δ13Cs) and, with the oxygen isotope composition of calcite and siderite, reconstruct δ18O of lake water (δ18Olw) over the last 637 ka. Interglacials have higher δ18Olw values when compared to glacial periods most likely due to changes in evaporation, summer temperature, the proportion of winter precipitation (snowfall), and inflow from adjacent Lake Prespa. The isotope stratigraphy suggests Lake Ohrid experienced a period of general stability from marine isotope stage (MIS) 15 to MIS 13, highlighting MIS 14 as a particularly warm glacial. Climate conditions became progressively wetter during MIS 11 and MIS 9. Interglacial periods after MIS 9 are characterised by increasingly evaporated and drier conditions through MIS 7, MIS 5, and the Holocene. Our results provide new evidence for long-term climate change in the northern Mediterranean region, which will form the basis to better understand the influence of major environmental events on biological evolution within Lake Ohrid.

Tonkin Region, Vietnam, 1883 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Carte du Tonkin, par Ch. Lassailly, géographe ; gravé par F. Dufour. It was published by Challamel ainé éditeur in 1883. Scale 1:2,500,000. Covers the Tonkin region, Northern Vietnam and a portion of China. Map in French.The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Asia North Lambert Conformal Conic coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, cities and other human settlements, territorial and administrative boundaries, shoreline features, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes also insets: Rivière de Hué, Indo-Chine, Itinéraires de Marseilles a Saïgon.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.

Tracer-based assessment of flow paths, storage and runoff generation in northern catchments : a review

Peer reviewed

Comparison of threshold hydrologic response across northern catchments

Funded by Leverhulme Trust. Grant Number: F/00 152/AG

Ecohydrological separation in wet, low energy northern environments? A preliminary assessment using different soil water extraction techniques

Funded by European Research Council ERC. Grant Number: project GA 335910 VEWA