Soil-mediated effects on potential Euterpe edulis (Arecaceae) fruit and palm heart sustainable management in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Euterpe edulis is an endangered species due to palm heart overharvesting, the most important non-timber forest product of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and fruit exploitation has been introduced as a low impacting alternative. However, E. edulis is a keystone species for frugivores birds, and even the impact of fruit exploitation needs to be better investigated. Since this species occurs over contrasting habitats, the establishment of site-specific standards and limits for exploitation may also be essential to achieve truly sustainable management. In this context, we sought to investigate how soil chemical composition would potentially affect E. edulis (Arecaceae) palm heart and fruit exploitation considering current standards of management. We studied natural populations found in Restinga Forest and Atlantic Rainforest remnants established within Natural Reserves of Sao Paulo State, SE Brazil, where 10.24 ha permanent plots, composed of a grid of 256 subplots (20 m x 20 m), were located. In each of these subplots, we evaluated soil chemical composition and diameter at breast height of E. edulis individuals. Additionally, we evaluated fruit yield in 2008 and 2009 in 20 individuals per year. The Atlantic Rainforest population had a much higher proportion of larger diameter individuals than the population from the Restinga Forest, as a result of habitat-mediated effects, especially those related to soil. Sodium and potassium concentration in Restinga Forest soils, which have strong negative and positive effect on palm growth, respectively, played a key role in determining those differences. Overall, the number of fruits that could be exploited in the Atlantic Rainforest was four times higher than in Restinga Forest. If current rules for palm heart and fruit harvesting were followed without any restriction to different habitats, Restinga Forest populations are under severe threat, as this study shows that they are not suitable for sustainable management of both fruits and palm heart. Hence, a habitat-specific approach of sustainable management is needed for this species in order to respect the demographic and ecological dynamics of each population to be managed. These findings suggest that any effort to create general management standards of low impacting harvesting may be unsuccessful if the species of interest occur over a wide range of ecosystems. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Moving from sustainable management to sustainable governance of natural resources: The role of social learning processes in rural India, Bolivia and Mali

The present paper discusses a conceptual, methodological and practical framework within which the limitations of the conventional notion of natural resource management (NRM) can be overcome. NRM is understood as the application of scientific ecological knowledge to resource management. By including a consideration of the normative imperatives that arise from scientific ecological knowledge and submitting them to public scrutiny, ‘sustainable management of natural resources’ can be recontextualised as ‘sustainable governance of natural resources’. This in turn makes it possible to place the politically neutralising discourse of ‘management’ in a space for wider societal debate, in which the different actors involved can deliberate and negotiate the norms, rules and power relations related to natural resource use and sustainable development. The transformation of sustainable management into sustainable governance of natural resources can be conceptualised as a social learning process involving scientists, experts, politicians and local actors, and their corresponding scientific and non-scientific knowledges. The social learning process is the result of what Habermas has described as ‘communicative action’, in contrast to ‘strategic action’. Sustainable governance of natural resources thus requires a new space for communicative action aiming at shared, intersubjectively validated definitions of actual situations and the goals and means required for transforming current norms, rules and power relations in order to achieve sustainable development. Case studies from rural India, Bolivia and Mali explore the potentials and limitations for broadening communicative action through an intensification of social learning processes at the interface of local and external knowledge. Key factors that enable or hinder the transformation of sustainable management into sustainable governance of natural resources through social learning processes and communicative action are discussed.

Capacity building in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan: Final Report

The Swiss Swiss Consultant Trust Fund (CTF) support covered the period from July to December 2007 and comprised four main tasks: (1) Analysis of historic land degradation trends in the four watersheds of Zerafshan, Surkhob, Toirsu, and Vanj; (2) Translation of standard CDE GIS training materials into Russian and Tajik to enable local government staff and other specialists to use geospatial data and tools; (3) Demonstration of geospatial tools that show land degradation trends associated with land use and vegetative cover data in the project areas, (4) Preliminary training of government staff in using appropriate data, including existing information, global datasets, inexpensive satellite imagery and other datasets and webbased visualization tools like spatial data viewers, etc. The project allowed building of local awareness of, and skills in, up-to-date, inexpensive, easy-to-use GIS technologies, data sources, and applications relevant to natural resource management and especially to sustainable land management. In addition to supporting the implementation of the World Bank technical assistance activity to build capacity in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management, the Swiss CTF support also aimed at complementing the Bank supervision work on the ongoing Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP).

Capacity building in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan: Inception report BNWPP project

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) has been contracted by the World Bank Group to conduct a program on capacity development in use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan. The program aimed to help improving natural resource management by fostering the use of geospatial tools among governmental and non-governmental institutions in Tajikistan. For this purpose a database including a Geographic Information System (GIS) has been prepared, which combines spatial data on various sectors for case study analysis related to the Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP). The inception report is based on the findings resulting from the Swiss Consultant Trust Fund (CTF) financed project, specifically on the experiences from the awareness creation and training workshop conducted in Dushanbe in November 2007 and the analysis of historical land degradation trends carried out for the four CAWMP watersheds. Furthermore, also recommendations from the inception mission of CDE to Tajikistan (5-20 August 2007) and the inception report for the Swiss CTF support were considered. The inception report for the BNWPP project (The Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership Program) discusses the following project relevant issues: (1) Preliminary list of additional data layers, types of data analysis, and audiences to be covered by BNWPP grant (2) Assessing skills and equipment already available within Tajikistan, and implications for training program and specific equipment procurement plans (3) Updated detailed schedule and plans for all activities to be financed by BNWPP grant, and (4) Proposed list of contents for the final report and web-based presentations.

Shaping Institutions for Natural Resource Management

This InfoResources Focus tries to clarify challenges people face when shaping institutions for sustainable NRM and discusses key elements for implementing processes of institutional change. Emphasis is put on local institutions embedded in national, regional and global institutional schemes.

Capacity Building in the Use of Geospatial Tools for Natural Resource Management in Tajikistan: Inception report

The sustainable management of natural resources is a key issue for sustainable development of a poor, mountainous country such as Tajikistan. In order to strengthen its agricultural and infrastructural development efforts and alleviate poverty in rural areas, spatial information and analysis are of crucial importance to improve priority setting and decision making efficiency. However, poor access to geospatial data and tools, and limited capacity in their use has greatly constrained the ability of governmental institutions to effectively assess, plan, and monitor natural resources management. The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) has thus been mandated by the World Bank Group to provide adequate technical support to the Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP). This support consists of a spatial database on soil degradation trends in 4 watersheds, capacity development in and awareness creation about geographic information technology and a spatial data exchange hub for natural resources management in Tajikistan. CDE’s support has started in July 2007 and will last until December 2007 with a possible extension in 2008.

Network Dynamics in Natural Resource Governance: A Case Study of Swiss Landscape Management

Structural characteristics of social networks have been recognized as important factors of effective natural resource governance. However, network analyses of natural resource governance most often remain static, even though governance is an inherently dynamic process. In this article, we investigate the evolution of a social network of organizational actors involved in the governance of natural resources in a regional nature park project in Switzerland. We ask how the maturation of a governance network affects bonding social capital and centralization in the network. Applying separable temporal exponential random graph modeling (STERGM), we test two hypotheses based on the risk hypothesis by Berardo and Scholz (2010) in a longitudinal setting. Results show that network dynamics clearly follow the expected trend toward generating bonding social capital but do not imply a shift toward less hierarchical and more decentralized structures over time. We investigate how these structural processes may contribute to network effectiveness over time.

Forestry Sector Reform and Distributional Change of Natural Resource Rent in Indonesia

After the collapse of the centralized Soeharto regime, deforestation caused by over-logging accelerated. To tackle this problem, an IMF/World Bank-led forestry sector reform program adopted a market-friendly approach involving the resumption of round wood exports and raising of the resource rent fee, with the aim to stop rent accumulation by plywood companies, which had enjoyed a supply of round wood at privileged prices. The Indonesian government, for its part, decentralized the forest concession management system to provide incentives for local governments and communities to carry out sustainable forest management. However, neither policy reform worked effectively. The round wood export ban was reimposed and the forest management system centralized again with cooperation from a newly funded industry-led institution. In the midst of the confusion surrounding the policy reversal, the gap between the price of round wood in international and domestic markets failed to contract, although rent allocations to plywood industries were reduced during 1998-2003. The rents were not collected properly by the government, but accumulated unexpectedly in the hands of players in the black market for round wood.

Sustainability in the Upper Colorado River Basin: A Struggle Between Water Resource Use and Remnants of the Natural Ecosystem

This study evaluated whether development of the Colorado River system has exceeded sustainability by comparing the trends in water use in the Colorado River. Two sustainable areas were identified in the upper basin and one in the lower-- the mainstream Colorado River, Green and Yampa rivers, and the Little Colorado River. These areas are also high priority recovery areas for four endangered fishes and protected by critical habitat provisions of the ESA. Unfortunately, the endangered fishes are declining because of habitat destruction and non-native species. If increasing water demand causes the fishes to go extinct the few sustainable areas will be lost. It will take careful management of the endangered fishes and water users to ensure these areas are maintained.

A compendium of references to publications on spatial analysis applied to natural resource management as authored by U. S. university faculty members /

Cover title: Spatial analysis applied to natural resource management.

Illinois in the '80's--trends in natural resource management : proceedings of the ninth annual INR Conference, Chicago, Illinois, August 25-26, 1980 /

"August 25-26, 1980."

Co-opting conservation: Migrant resource control and access to national park management in the Philippine uplands

The history of political and economic inequality in forest villages can shape how and why resource use conflicts arise during the evolution of national parks management. In the Philippine uplands, indigenous peoples and migrant settlers co-exist, compete over land and forest resources, and shape how managers preserve forests through national parks. This article examines how migrants have claimed lands and changed production and exchange relations among the indigenous Tagbanua to build on and benefit from otherwise coercive park management on Palawan Island, the Philippines. Migrant control over productive resources has influenced who, within each group, could sustain agriculture in the face of the state's dominant conservation narrative - valorizing migrant paddy rice and criminalizing Tagbanua swiddens. Upon settling, migrant farmers used new political and economic strengths to tap into provincial political networks in order to be hired at a national park. As a result, they were able to steer management to support paddy rice at the expense of swidden cultivation. While state conservation policy shapes how national parks impact upon local resource access and use, older political economic inequalities in forest villages build on such policies to influence how management affects the livelihoods of poor households.