Establishing field margins to promote beetle conservation in arable farms

This study investigates the function of non-cropped field margins in arable farming systems for enhancing the biodiversity value of beetle communities. Three different sown seed mixtures were used to establish field margins, a Countryside Stewardship mix, a fine grass and forbs mix and a tussock grass and forbs mix. The structure of beetle communities in the first full year of establishment was found to show no difference between the tussock grass and Countryside Stewardship margins. However, both differed from the fine grass margins, which supported lower overall abundance and species richness of beetles. This was attributed to small-scale architectural differences between species of fine and tussock grasses, rather than differences in plant composition. Body size distributions of beetles showed distinct similarities between the Countryside Stewardship and tussock margins. A greater abundance of large beetles was found in fine grass margins, although in all cases these body size distributions were attributed to a small number of species or a taxonomically distinct group. All three margin types included beetle species of conservation value. The importance of these results was discussed in the context of the value of these seed mixtures for invertebrate conversation. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Acquiring, managing and applying knowledge for environmental conservation

We are experiencing an explosion of knowledge with relevance to conserving biodiversity and protecting the environment necessary to sustain life on earth. Many science disciplines are involved in generating this ne, knowledge and real progress can be made when scientists collaborate across disciplines to generate both macro- and micro-environmental knowledge and then communicate and interact with specialists in sociology, economics and public policy. An important requirement is that the often complex scientific concepts and their voluminous supporting data are managed in such ways as to make them accessible across the many specializations involved. Horticultural science has much to contribute to the knowledge base for environmental conservation. While it seems that production horticulture has been slow to embrace knowledge and concepts that would reduce the heavy reliance on agricultural chemicals, the use of peat as a growing medium, and lead to more sustainable use of water and other resources, environmental horticulture is providing valuable opportunities to rescue or protect endangered species, educate the public about plants and plant science, and demonstrate environmental stewardship and sustainable production practices. Likewise, social horticulture is drawing, attention to the many contributions of horticultural foods and parks and gardens to human health and welfare. Overall, horticulture has a vital role to play in integrating, knowledge from other scientific, social, economic and political disciplines.

Access to the countryside of England and Wales: popular leisure; commodified culture

Risk and uncertainty are, to say the least, poorly considered by most individuals involved in real estate analysis - in both development and investment appraisal. Surveyors continue to express 'uncertainty' about the value (risk) of using relatively objective methods of analysis to account for these factors. These methods attempt to identify the risk elements more explicitly. Conventionally this is done by deriving probability distributions for the uncontrolled variables in the system. A suggested 'new' way of "being able to express our uncertainty or slight vagueness about some of the qualitative judgements and not From its modern origins, associated with the urbanising effect of industrialisation, walking has remained a popular form of outdoor recreation. It has, furthermore, remained an important site of class struggle, with the 'landless' seeking to establish their moral 'citizen' right to roam over open country in contradistinction to the 'landed', who have successfully limited this right to legally-defined public rights of way. In the face of declining farm incomes, however, farmers and landowners have, apparently, modified their attitudes towards public access, but only in return for compensation and management payments under grant schemes such as Countryside Stewardship and the Countryside Premium Scheme. With the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food now seeking to extend paid access arrangements to other grant schemes, as part of its response to the European Union's Agri-Environment Regulations, access 'rights' are assuming an increasingly commodified form, thereby questioning, if not undermining, the former citizen claims. For rather than being a benefit of citizenship, the existence of limited, often poorly maintained and inadequately signposted, public rights of way has tied inextricably the extension of legally-enforceable access to the needs of the landowners and farmers. At a time of falling prosperity in agriculture, therefore, they have now exercised their discretion by annexing the populism of consumer culture to reproduce the bourgeois liberal values of the market as a principal determinant of the extension of citizen rights of access to the countryside.

The story of Temple Bar: creating Dublin's cultural quarter

The paper conceptualises and explores the links between cities, commerce, urbanism and cultural planning by drawing on Temple Bar in Dublin as an example of how, by linking these concepts to practice in real concrete situations urban life or urban culture can be created and/or revitalised. Temple Bar is Dublin's emerging cultural quarter, an experiment in urban revitalisation which is deliberately focused on culture and urbanism as ways of rediscovering the good city. It has attracted considerable interest from across Europe, and has secured EC funding to kick-start the process of renewal. The author was appointed by the Irish Government to prepare the area management and development strategy for Temple Bar in 1990. Wary of the dangers of property led regeneration, of the destructive impacts of sudden or cataclysmic change, the agencies in Temple Bar have deliberately adopted a strategic management approach to the area. This is referred to as 'urban stewardship', a process of looking after and respecting a place, and helping it to help itself. The paper explores whether there is a 'culture of cities' and whether it is possible to recreate an urban culture. Following Raymond Williams, an anthropological definition of culture is employed, "... a particular way of life, which expresses certain meaning and values not only in art and learning but also in institutional and ordinary behaviour". Rather than being simply an add-on to the serious concerns of economic development and the built environment, culture has both helped shape, and continues to develop in, the streets, spaces and buildings of the city.

Institutional capacity and implementation issues in farmers' rights

Armed with the ‘equity’ and ‘conservation’ arguments that have a deep resonance with farming communities, developing countries are crafting a range of measures designed to protect farmers’ access to innovations, reward their contributions to the conservation and enhancement of plant genetic resources and provide incentives for sustained on-farm conservation. These measures range from the commericialization of farmers’ varieties to the conferment of a set of legally enforceable rights on farming communities – the exercise of which is expected to provide economic rewards to those responsible for on-farm conservation and innovation. The rights-based approach has been the cornerstone of legislative provision for implementing farmers’ rights in most developing countries. In drawing up these measures, developing countries do not appear to have systematically examined or provided for the substantial institutional capacity required for the effective implementation of farmers’ rights provisions. The lack of institutional capacity threatens to undermine any prospect of serious implementation of these provisions. More importantly, the expectation that significant incentives for on-farm conservation and innovation will flow from these ‘rights’ may be based on a flawed understanding of the economics of intellectual property rights. While farmers’ rights may provide only limited rewards for conservation, they may still have the effect of diluting the incentives for innovative institutional breeding programs – with the private sector increasingly relying on non-IPR instruments to profit from innovation. The focus on a rights-based approach may also draw attention away from alternative stewardship-based approaches to the realization of farmers’ rights objectives.

Economic rationale for interventions to control livestock disease

Disease in farm animals has significant economic impacts on livestock production and incurs substantial costs for societies. Impacts affect not only livestock farms and the livestock industries but also sectors outside of farming. Important negative externalities of livestock disease include impacts on the health of other producers’ livestock, on human health, and on animal welfare. Good disease risk management/biosecurity and good animal welfare are public goods. Not taking account of these externality and public good aspects can lead to a misallocation of resources for livestock disease control. In such instances, there may be a strong case for government or other authority to intervene to ensure a better use of resources. There are a number of policy instruments that can be implemented for this purpose. One potential instrument is a Farm Animal Health and Welfare Stewardship Scheme funded under Pillar II of the CAP. A number of countries have public–private partnership cost-sharing schemes that aim to share appropriately both responsibilities and costs of epidemic livestock disease. There is a strong future agenda for appropriate intervention by governments in the management of livestock disease risks, including responsibility and cost sharing for livestock disease control, within the European Union and elsewhere.

Simulation of the global ENSO–Tropical cyclone teleconnection by a high-resolution coupled general circulation model

This study assesses the influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on global tropical cyclone activity using a 150-yr-long integration with a high-resolution coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model [High-Resolution Global Environmental Model (HiGEM); with N144 resolution: ~90 km in the atmosphere and ~40 km in the ocean]. Tropical cyclone activity is compared to an atmosphere-only simulation using the atmospheric component of HiGEM (HiGAM). Observations of tropical cyclones in the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) and tropical cyclones identified in the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) are used to validate the models. Composite anomalies of tropical cyclone activity in El Niño and La Niña years are used. HiGEM is able to capture the shift in tropical cyclone locations to ENSO in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, HiGEM does not capture the expected ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection in the North Atlantic. HiGAM shows more skill in simulating the global ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection; however, variability in the Pacific is overpronounced. HiGAM is able to capture the ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection in the North Atlantic more accurately than HiGEM. An investigation into the large-scale environmental conditions, known to influence tropical cyclone activity, is used to further understand the response of tropical cyclone activity to ENSO in the North Atlantic and western North Pacific. The vertical wind shear response over the Caribbean is not captured in HiGEM compared to HiGAM and ERA-Interim. Biases in the mean ascent at 500 hPa in HiGEM remain in HiGAM over the western North Pacific; however, a more realistic low-level vorticity in HiGAM results in a more accurate ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection.

Managing artisanal and small-scale mining in forest areas: perspectives from a poststructural political ecology

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is an activity intimately associated with social deprivation and environmental degradation, including deforestation. This paper examines ASM and deforestation using a broadly poststructural political ecology framework. Hegemonic discourses are shown to consistently influence policy direction, particularly in emerging approaches such as Corporate Social Responsibility and the Forest Stewardship Council. A review of alternative discourses reveals that the poststructural method is useful for critiquing the international policy arena but does not inform new approaches. Synthesis of the analysis leads to conclusions that echo a growing body of literature advocating for policies to become increasingly sensitive to local contexts, synergistic between actors at difference scales, and to be integrated across sectors.

Assessing the ability of rural agrarian areas to provide Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES): a Multi Scale Social Indicator Framework (MSIF)

Assessing the ways in which rural agrarian areas provide Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) is proving difficult to achieve. This research has developed an innovative methodological approach named as Multi Scale Indicator Framework (MSIF) for capturing the CES embedded into the rural agrarian areas. This framework reconciles a literature review with a trans-disciplinary participatory workshop. Both of these sources reveal that societal preferences diverge upon judgemental criteria which in turn relate to different visual concepts that can be drawn from analysing attributes, elements, features and characteristics of rural areas. We contend that it is now possible to list a group of possible multi scale indicators for stewardship, diversity and aesthetics. These results might also be of use for improving any existing European indicators frameworks by also including CES. This research carries major implications for policy at different levels of governance, as it makes possible to target and monitor policy instruments to the physical rural settings so that cultural dimensions are adequately considered. There is still work to be developed on regional specific values and thresholds for each criteria and its indicator set. In practical terms, by developing the conceptual design within a common framework as described in this paper, a considerable step forward towards the inclusion of the cultural dimension in European wide assessments can be made.

The transaction cost economics theory of the family firm: family-based human asset specificity and the bifurcation bias

We develop a transaction cost economics theory of the family firm, building upon the concepts of family-based asset specificity, bounded rationality, and bounded reliability. We argue that the prosperity and survival of family firms depend on the absence of a dysfunctional bifurcation bias. The bifurcation bias is an expression of bounded reliability, reflected in the de facto asymmetric treatment of family vs. nonfamily assets (especially human assets). We propose that absence of bifurcation bias is critical to fostering reliability in family business functioning. Our study ends the unproductive divide between the agency and stewardship perspectives of the family firm, which offer conflicting accounts of this firm type's functioning. We show that the predictions of the agency and stewardship perspectives can be usefully reconciled when focusing on how family firms address the bifurcation bias or fail to do so.

Supporting local diversity of habitats and species on farmland: a comparison of three wildlife-friendly schemes

Restoration and maintenance of habitat diversity have been suggested as conservation priorities in farmed landscapes, but how this should be achieved and at what scale are unclear. This study makes a novel comparison of the effectiveness of three wildlife-friendly farming schemes for supporting local habitat diversity and species richness on 12 farms in England. The schemes were: (i) Conservation Grade (Conservation Grade: a prescriptive, non-organic, biodiversity-focused scheme), (ii) organic agriculture and (iii) a baseline of Entry Level Stewardship (Entry Level Stewardship: a flexible widespread government scheme). Conservation Grade farms supported a quarter higher habitat diversity at the 100-m radius scale compared to Entry Level Stewardship farms. Conservation Grade and organic farms both supported a fifth higher habitat diversity at the 250-m radius scale compared to Entry Level Stewardship farms. Habitat diversity at the 100-m and 250-m scales significantly predicted species richness of butterflies and plants. Habitat diversity at the 100-m scale also significantly predicted species richness of birds in winter and solitary bees. There were no significant relationships between habitat diversity and species richness for bumblebees or birds in summer. Butterfly species richness was significantly higher on organic farms (50% higher) and marginally higher on Conservation Grade farms (20% higher), compared with farms in Entry Level Stewardship. Organic farms supported significantly more plant species than Entry Level Stewardship farms (70% higher) but Conservation Grade farms did not (10% higher). There were no significant differences between the three schemes for species richness of bumblebees, solitary bees or birds. Policy implications. The wildlife-friendly farming schemes which included compulsory changes in management, Conservation Grade and organic, were more effective at increasing local habitat diversity and species richness compared with the less prescriptive Entry Level Stewardship scheme. We recommend that wildlife-friendly farming schemes should aim to enhance and maintain high local habitat diversity, through mechanisms such as option packages, where farmers are required to deliver a combination of several habitats.

How much flower-rich habitat is enough for wild pollinators? Answering a key policy question with incomplete knowledge

In 2013, an opportunity arose in England to develop an agri-environment package for wild pollinators, as part of the new Countryside Stewardship scheme launched in 2015. It can be understood as a 'policy window', a rare and time-limited opportunity to change policy, supported by a narrative about pollinator decline and widely supported mitigating actions. An agri-environment package is a bundle of management options that together supply sufficient resources to support a target group of species. This paper documents information that was available at the time to develop such a package for wild pollinators. Four questions needed answering: (1) Which pollinator species should be targeted? (2) Which resources limit these species in farmland? (3) Which management options provide these resources? (4) What area of each option is needed to support populations of the target species? Focussing on wild bees, we provide tentative answers that were used to inform development of the package. There is strong evidence that floral resources can limit wild bee populations, and several sources of evidence identify a set of agri-environment options that provide flowers and other resources for pollinators. The final question could only be answered for floral resources, with a wide range of uncertainty. We show that the areas of some floral resource options in the basic Wild Pollinator and Farmland Wildlife Package (2% flower-rich habitat and 1 km flowering hedgerow), are sufficient to supply a set of six common pollinator species with enough pollen to feed their larvae at lowest estimates, using minimum values for estimated parameters where a range was available. We identify key sources of uncertainty, and stress the importance of keeping the Package flexible, so it can be revised as new evidence emerges about how to achieve the policy aim of supporting pollinators on farmland.

Bonusar : Mot ett långsiktigt tänkande

Background: The background explains different financial crises and the effect those crises had on the Swedish acquits regarding variable compensation. The resent discussion regarding variable compensation and the main problems with bonuses is also explained. Our theories for this essay is mainly based on the new directions from Finansinspektionen FFFS 2009:6,7 and stakeholder theory. Other theories used are agency theory, stewardship theory and economic man.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to analyze the new directions for variable compensation and to investigate if these new directions can lead to a more long-term thinking for managers in banks. Method:We used semi-structured interviews with open questions for our survey. During the survey we conducted three personal interviews and one mail interview, respondents represented the stakeholder groups: stakeholder, stakewatcher and stakekeeper. Conclusion: During our survey we found that the directions from Finansinspektionen are still on an early stage and it has been hard to analyze their effects. But it has been shown that the banks experience some difficulty in identifying their risk takers. In our investigation we have found that the new directions can be a step towards a more long-term thinking but it requires the management to change the point of view regarding bonuses.

Estratégia em tempos turbulentos: a realidade das empresas familiares vista através do ramo de alcool combustível brasileiro

Este trabalho trata da estratégia de empresas familiares em ramos turbulentos, procurando explorar especialmente duas questões: (1) como empresas familiares situadas em ramo tradicionalmente familiar contemplam o possível impacto de turbulências setoriais sobre a dimensão familiar do ramo?; (2) qual o comportamento estratégico de empresas familiares, considerando sua dimensão familiar, num ambiente turbulento? A estratégia em contextos turbulentos tem sido objeto de pesquisa há pouco mais de duas décadas. O foco, no entanto, no comportamento estratégico das empresas familiares, nesse tipo de contexto, é ainda inédito na literatura. Através de dois estudos de caso, com uma empresa de grande porte e uma de pequeno porte, e sob uma abordagem indutiva de teoria, as questões foram exploradas. O ramo sucro-alcooleiro brasileiro, no período de 2003 a 2008, foi o contexto adotado para desenvolver o trabalho. Além de ser tradicionalmente formado por empresas familiares, o setor é marcado, no período citado, por turbulências, especialmente em relação ao crescimento da demanda e à expectativa de maior crescimento no futuro próximo. O ambiente turbulento é completado por pressões para aumento da escala das empresas do ramo, atração de entrantes, novos investimentos na capacidade de operação e movimentos de consolidação. Os resultados indicam que os principais impactos do ambiente turbulento na dimensão familiar do ramo são pressões para a profissionalização das empresas familiares e para a mudança no mindset dos controladores dessas empresas, especialmente no tocante a soluções de funding e de controle. Essas pressões têm potencial de gerarem movimentos generalizados entre as empresas familiares do ramo, tornando os resultados uma contribuição importante ao entendimento das turbulências. Quanto ao comportamento estratégico das empresas familiares no contexto turbulento, os resultados sugerem, primeiramente, que a dimensão familiar faz parte das estratégias dessas empresas nesse tipo de ambiente e está, em grande medida, relacionada a soluções de consolidação do controle e de profissionalização, incluindo o estabelecimento de regras de sucessão. A profissionalização de empresas familiares em ambientes turbulentos pode ter um papel funcional ou simbólico, de exposição da empresa para stakeholders externos. Por fim, os resultados mostram que as estratégias das empresas estudadas, no que tocante à profissionalização, são a composição de elementos previstos por diferentes perspectivas teóricas (teoria da agência, teoria do crescimento da firma, stewardship theory e resource-based view), sendo possível analisar, através de tais perspectivas, os componentes que mais se destacam em cada estratégia, sejam favoráveis ou contrários à profissionalização.

Funding social sector activity in Brazil: a case study analysis of agency risk incidence and mitigation

Empresas e organizações sociais têm um papel cada vez mais importante no mercado brasileiro. Essas organizações - sejam elas com ou sem fins lucrativos –têm como objetivocausar um profundo e positivo impacto social.Ambas enfrentamtambém o mesmo desafio: financiar as suas operações. Recentemente, dois modelos inovadores de financiamento, o fundo de venture capitalVox Capital e o fundo de empréstimo social SITAWI, entraram no mercado brasileiro para solucionar esse desafio. Este estudo analisa ambos os fundos,associando o problema do financiamento de empresas e organizações sociais às teorias tradicionais de negócio. Mais especificamente, por meio de um estudo de caso,é avaliado se o risco de agência (agency risk) explica as práticas e o designcontratual utilizados pelos fundos. A pesquisa é baseada num estudo de Alemany e Scarlata (2010) sobre a estruturação dos negócios de fundos filantrópicos de capital empreendedor (PhVC, na sigla em inglês) na América do Norte e na Europa. Uma definição chave desse estudo é que organizações sem fins lucrativos, ao contrário daquelas com fins lucrativos, estão sujeitas a uma restrição de distribuição de lucros. Embora Alemany e Scarlata (2010) tivessem descobertoque parceria (stewardship), mais do que o problema de agência (agency problem), explica a estrutura dos negócios dos fundos PhVC, as implicações do presente estudo de caso para o Brasil são diferentes. Os resultados sugerem que o problema de agência,mais do que a parceria,descreve adequadamente os contratos analisados de financiamento. Detectou-seque cláusulas contratuais não foram apenas usadas para mitigar o risco de agênciaresultanteda ausência de uma restrição de distribuição de lucros, mas também para reger as estruturas cooperativas com organizações sem fins lucrativos. No caso de SITAWI, a restrição dos destinatários de fundos de distribuir lucros provou-se uma ferramenta efetiva para alinhar os interesses entre os financiadores e os destinatários dos fundos. Apesar daimplicação da presença de parceria, os contratos do fundo social contiveram cláusulas geralmente usadas para reduzir o risco de agência. No caso de Vox Capital, os destinatários dos fundos eram empresas com fins lucrativos, portanto não sujeitas à restrição de distribuição de lucros. O modelo de negócio de Vox Capital é organizado para impedir qualquer incidência potencial do problema de agência. Ambos os fundos, independentemente da estrutura jurídica dos beneficiários destes fundos, evidenciaram o intuito de garantir a aplicação de práticas de negócio utilizadas pelas empresas tradicionais do setor corporativo em vez daquelas utilizadas no setor social.